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RAMBLES
RECOLLECTIONS
AN INDIAN OFFICIAL,
BY
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL W. H. SLEEMAN,
OF THE BENGAL ARMY.
The proper study of mankind is man.'
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
Pope.
LONDON:
J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILU
1844.
LONDON :
PBINTED BY G. J. PALMER, SAVOY STREET STRAND.
CONTENTS
OF VOLUME THE SECOND.
CHAPTER I.
Pindaree System— Character of the Mahratta Administra-
tion—Cause of their dislike to the paramount power. ¥age 1
CHAPTER II.
Dholepore, Capital of the Jat chiefs of Gohud — Conse-
quence of obstacles to the prosecution of robbers . .11
CHAPTER III.
Influence of electricity on vegetation — Agra and its build-
ings
25
CHAPTER IV.
Noor Jehan^ the aunt of the Empress Noor Mahul, over
whose remains the Taj is built . . . . 40
/
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Father Gregory's notion of the impediments to conver-
sion in India — Inability of Europeans to speak Eastern
languages . . . . . .51
CFVPTER VI.
Futtehpore Secree — The Emperor Akbar's pilgrimage —
Birth of Jehangeer . . . . . 65
CHAPTER VIL
Bhurtpore— Deeg — Want of employment for the military
and the educated classes under the Company's rule . 75
CHAPTER VIII.
Goverdhun, the scene of Krishna's dalliance with the milk-
maids . . . . . . .92
CHAPTER IX.
Veracity . . . . . . .109
CHAPTER X.
Declining fertility of the soil — Popular notion of the
cause
146
CHAPTER XI.
Concentration of capital, and its effects . . . 1 60
CHAPTER XII.
Transit duties in India— Mode of collecting them .. .168
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
Peasantry of India attached to no existing Government —
Want of trees in Upper India — Cause and consequence —
Wells and groves . . . . .174
CHAPTER XIV.
Public spirit of the Hindoos — Tree cultivation, and sugges-
tion for extending it . . . • .188
CHAPTER XV.
Cities and towns, formed by public establishments, disap-
pear as Sovereigns and Governors change their abodes . 20 1
CHAPTER XVI.
Murder of Mr. Eraser, and execution of the Nowab Shum-
shoodeen . . , , . .209
CHAPTER XVII.
Marriage of a Jjit chief . . . . .232
CHAPTER XVIII.
Collegiate endowment of Mahomedan tombs and mosques . 236
CHAPTER XIX.
The old City of Delhi . . . . 245
VOL. II. h
VI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX.
New Delhi, or Shah Jehanabad .... 263
CHAPTER XXI.
Indian police— Its defects — And their cause and remedy . 313
CHAPTER XXII.
Rent-free tenures — Right of Government to resume such
grants ....... 333
CHAPTER XXIII.
The station of Meerut — Atalees who dance and sing gratis v
for the benefit of the poor .... 340
CHAPTER XXIV.
Subdivision of lands — Want of gradations of rank —
Taxes . . . . . . .346
CHAPTER XXV.
Meerut — Anglo-Indian society . . . .356
CHAPTER XXVI,
Pilgrims in India • .... 368
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Begum Sumroo . • . . .377
CONTENTS. VU
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ON THE SPIRIT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE IN THE NATIVE
ARMY OF INDIA.
Abolition of corporal punishment — Increase of pay with
length of service — Promotion by seniority . .400
CHAPTER XXIX.
Inyalid establishment .... 442
L
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Frontispiece to Vol. 1. The late Emperor of Delhi.
Frontispiece to Vol. II. Five Portraits from Miniatures.
Plate. Vol. II
1 . The Taj Mahul, or Tomb of Noor Mahul, the wife of
Shah Jehaa .... Page
2. Ditto
3. Ditto
4. The Taj from the River
5. Marble Screen of the Tomb in the Taj
6. Gateway of the Taj
7. Fort of Agra from the River
8. Motee Musjid, or Pearl Mosque, at Agra, built by
Shah Jehan
9. Tomb of the Emperor Akbar at Secundra
10. Interior of ditto
1 1 . Gateway to ditto
12. Tomb of Actmad od Dowla .
13. Interior of ditto
The China Tomb at Agra, a very old Mausoleum,
now in ruins, built by an Officer of the Imperial
Court for himself.
The Gateway to the Quadrangle, in which stands the
Tomb of the Saint at Futtehpore Secree .
16. The Pavilion on one of the four sides of the Qua-
drangular Garden at Deeg
17. Ditto . . • .
18. Ditto ....
19. Ditto ....
20. Runjeet Sing's Tomb at Goverdhun
21. The Kootub Meenar at Delhi
22. Dewan Khan's Palace at Delhi.
23. Tomb of Sufdeer Jung at Delhi.
24. Five Tombs from Miniatures.
25. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Plants and Ornaments.
14
15
28
28
28
28
28
28
36
37
38
38
38
38
41
69
82
82
82
82
101
246
KAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
CHAPTER L
PINDAREE SYSTEM — CHARACTER OF THE MAHRATTA ADMINIS-
TRATION CAUSE OF THEIR DISLIKE TO THE PARAMOUNT
POWER.
The attempt of the Marquis of Hastings to rescue
India from that dreadful scourge, the Pindaree
system, involved him in a war with all the great
Mahratta states except Gwalior; that is, with the
Peshwa at Poonah, Hoi car at Indore, and the Ghosla
at Nagpore ; and Gwalior was prevented from join-
ing the other states in their unholy league against us,
only by the presence of the grand division of the army
under the personal command of the marquis, in the
immediate vicinity of his capital. It was not that these
chiefs liked the Pindarees, or felt any interest in their
welfare ; but because they were always anxious to
crush that rising paramount authority, which had the
power, and had always manifested the will, to inters
pose and prevent the free indulgence of their preda-
tory habits — the free exercise of that weapon, a
VOL. II. B
^ RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Standing army, which the disorders incident upon the
decline and fall of the Mahomedan empire had put
into their hands ; and which a continued series of
successful aggressions upon their neighbours could
alone enable them to pay or keep under control.
They seized with avidity any occasion of quarrel with
the paramount power which seemed likely to unite
them all in one great effort to shake it off; and they
are still prepared to do the same, because they feel
that they could easily extend their depredations if
that power were withdrawn ; and they know no other
road to wealth and glory but such successful depre-
dations. Their ancestors rose by them, their states
were formed by them, and their armies have been
maintained by them. They look back upon them
for all that seems to them honourable in the history
of their families. Their bards sing of them in all
their marriage and funeral processions ; and as their
imaginations kindle at the recollection, they detest
the arm that is extended to defend the wealth and the
industry of the surrounding territories from their grasp.
As the industrious classes acquire and display their
wealth in the countries around, during a long peace,
under a strong and settled government, these native
chiefs, with their little disorderly armies, feel pre-
cisely as an English country gentleman would feel
with a pack of fox-hounds, in a country swarming
with foxes, and without the privilege of hunting
them.
Their armies always took the auspices and set out
KINGDOM-TAKING. 6
kingdom taJdng (Moolk Geeree) after the Duseyra,
in November, every year, as regularly as English
gentlemen go partridge shooting on the 1st of Sep-
tember ; and I may here give as a specimen, the
excursion of Jean Baptiste Feloze, who sallied forth
on such an expedition, at the head of a division of
Scindhea's army, just before this Pindara war com-
menced. From Gwalior he proceeded to Kurowlee,
and took from the chief of that territory the district
of Subulghur, yielding four lacks of rupees yearly.
He then took the territory of the Rajah of Chun-
deylee, Morepylad, one of the oldest of the Bundel-
cund chiefs, which then yielded about seven lacks of
rupees, but now yields only four. The Rajah got an
allowance of forty thousand rupees a year. He then
took the territories of the Rajahs of Ragooghur and
Bujrungur, yielding three lacks a year ; and Baha-
dergur yielding two lacks a year ; and the three
princes get fifty thousand rupees a year for sub-
sistence among them. He then took Lopar, yield-
ing two lacks and a half, and assigned the Rajah
twenty-five thousand. He then took Gurha Kotah,
whose chief gets subsistence from our government.
Baptiste had just completed his kingdom-taking ex-
pedition, when our armies took the field against the
Pindarees ; and on the termination of that war, in
1817, all these acquisitions were confirmed and gua-
ranteed to his master, Scindhea, by our government.
It cannot be supposed that either he or his army can
ever feel any great attachment towards a paramount
B 2
4 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
authority, that has the power and the will to inter-
pose, and prevent their indulging in such sporting
excursions as these, or any great disinclination to
take advantage of any occasion that may seem likely
to unite all the native chiefs in a common effort to
crush it. The Nepalese have the same feeling as the
Mahrattas in a still stronger degree, since their king-
dom-taking excursions had been still greater and
more successful ; and being all soldiers from the same
soil, they were easily persuaded, by a long series of
successful aggressions, that their courage was superior
to that of all other men.*
In the year 1833, the Gwalior territory yielded a
net revenue to the treasury of ninety-two lacks of
rupees, after disbursing all the local costs of the civil
and fiscal administration of the different districts, in
officers, establishments, charitable institutions, reli-
gious endowments, military fiefs, &c. In the re-
mote districts, which are much infested by the pre-
* On the coronation or installation of every new prince of the
house of Scindhea, orders are given to plunder a few shops in the
town as a part of the ceremony; and this they call or consider " tak-
ing the auspices." Compensation is supposed to be made to the
proprietors, but rarely is made. I believe the same auspices are
taken at the installation of a new prince of every other Mahratta
house. The Mogul invaders of India were, in the same manner,
obliged to allow their armies to take the auspices in the sack of a
few towns, though they had surrendered without resistance.
They were given up to pillage as a religious duty ! Even the
accomplished Baber was obliged to concede this privilege to his
army.
gwalior territory. 0
datory tribes of Bheels, and in consequence badly
peopled and cultivated, the net revenue is estimated
to be about one-third of the gross collections ; but
in the districts near the capital, which are tole-
rably well cultivated, the net revenue brought to
the treasury is about five-sixths of the gross collec-
tions ; and these collections are equal to the whole
annual rent of the land : for every man by whom the
land is held or cultivated is a mere tenant at will,
liable every season to be turned out, to give place to
any other man that may offer more for the holding.
There is nowhere to be seen upon the land any
useful or ornamental work, calculated to attach the
people to the soil, or to their villages ; and as hardly
any of the recruits for the regiments are drawn from
the peasantry of the country, the agricultural classes
have nowhere any feeling of interest in the welfare
or existence of the government. I am persuaded
that there is not a single village in all the Gwalior
dominions in which nine-tenths of the people would
not be glad to see that government destroyed, under
the persuasion, that they could not possibly have a
worse, and would be very likely to find a better.
The present force at Gwalior consists of three re-
giments of infantry, under Colonel Alexander; six
under the command of Apajee, the adopted son of
the late Bala Bae ; eleven under Colonel Jacobs
and his son ; five under Colonel Jean Baptiste
Feloze ; two under the command of the Mamoo
Sahib, the maternal uncle of the Maha Rajah ; three
6 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
in what is called Baboo Bowlee's camp ; in all thirty
regiments, consisting, when complete, of six hundred
men each, with four field-pieces. The Jinsee, or
artillery, consists of two hundred guns of different
calibre. There are but few corps of cavalry, and
these are not considered very efficient, I believe.
Robbers and murderers of all descriptions have
always been in the habit of taking the field in India
immediately after the festival of the Duseyra, at the
end of October, from the sovereign of a state at the
head of his armies, down to the leader of a little
band of pickpockets from the corner of some obscure
village. All invoke the Deity, and take the auspices
to ascertain his will, nearly in the same way ; and
all expect that he will guide them successfully
through their enterprises, as long as they find the
omens favourable. No one among them ever dreams
that his undertaking can be less acceptable to the
Deity than that of another, provided he gives him
the same due share of what he acquires in his thefts,
his robberies, or his conquests,"in sacrifices and offer-
ings upon his shrines, and in donations to his priests.
Nor does the robber often dream that he shall be con-
sidered a less respectable citizen by the circle in which
he moves than the soldier, provided he spends his in-
come as liberally, and discharges all his duties in his
relations with them as well ; and this he generally
does to secure their good will, whatever may be the
character of his depredations upon distant circles of
society and communities. The man who returned
GVVALIOR TERRITORY. 7
to Oude, or Rohilcund, after a campaign under a
Pindaree chief, was as well received as one who re-
turned after serving one under Scindhea, Holcar,
or Runjeet Sing. A friend of mine one day asked
a leader of a band of Dacoits, or banditti, whether
they did not often commit murder. " God forbid,"
said he, " that we should ever commit murder ; but
if people choose to oppose us, we of course strike and
Mil ; but you do the same. I hear that there is now
a large assemblage of troops in the upper provinces
going to take foreign countries ; if they are opposed,
they will kill people. We only do the same!"
The history of the rise of every nation in the world
unhappily bears out the notion that princes are only
robbers upon a large scale, till their ambition is
curbed by a balance of power among nations.
On the 25th we came on to Dhumeela, fourteen
miles, over a plain, with the range of sandstone hills
on the left, receding from us to the west ; and that
on the right receding still more to the east. Here
and there were some insulated hills, of the same formar
tion, rising abruptly from the plain to our right. All
the villages we saw were built upon masses of this
sandstone rock, rising abruptly at intervals from the
surface of the plain, in horizontal strata. These
hillocks afford the people stone for building, and
great facilities for defending themselves against the
inroads of freebooters. There is not, I suppose, in
the world, finer stone for building than these sand-
stone hills afford ; and we passed a great many carts
8 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
carrying them off to distant places, in slabs or flags
from ten to sixteen feet long, two to three feet wide,
and six inches thick. They are white, with yery
minute pink spots, and of a texture so very fine, that
they would be taken for indurated clay, on a slight
inspection. The houses of the poorest peasants are
here built of this beautiful freestone, which, after
two hundred years, looks as if it had been quarried
only yesterday.
About three miles from our tents we crossed over
the little river Ghorapuchar, flowing over a bed of
this sandstone. The soil all the way very light, and
the cultivation scanty and bad. Except within the
enclosures of men's houses, scarcely a tree to be any-
where seen to give shelter and shade to the weary
traveller ; and we could find no ground for our camp
with a shrub to shelter man or beast. All are swept
away to form gun-carriages for the Gwalior artillery,
with a philosophical disregard to the comforts of the
living, the repose of the dead, who planted them with
a view to a comfortable berth in the next world, and
to the will of the gods to whom they are dedicated.
There is nothing left upon the land, of animal or
vegetable life, to animate or enrich it ; nothing of
stock but what is necessary to draw from the soil an
annual crop, and which looks to one harvest for its en-
tire return. The sovereign proprietor of the soil lets it
out by the year, in farms or villages, to men who de-
pend entirely upon the year's return for the means
of payment. He, in his turn, lets the lands in detail
GWALIOR TERRITORY. 9
to those who till them, and who depend for their
subsistence, and for the means of paying their rents,
upon the returns of the single harvest. There is no
manufacture anywhere to be seen, save of brass pots
and rude cooking utensils ; no trade or commerce,
save in the transport of the rude produce of the land,
to the great camp at Gwalior, upon the backs of
bullocks, for want of roads fit for wheeled carriages.
No one resides in the villages, save those whose
labour is indispensably necessary to the rudest tillage,
and those who collect the dues of government, and
are paid upon the lowest possible scale. Such is the
state of the Gwalior territories in every part of India
where I have seen them. The miseries and misrule
of the Oude, Hydrabad, and other Mahomedan go-
vernments, are heard of everywhere, because there
are, under those governments, a middle and higher
class upon the land to suffer and proclaim them ;
but those of the Gwalior state are never heard of,
because no such classes are ever allowed to grow up
upon the land. Had Russia governed Poland, and
Turkey Greece, in the way that Gwalior has governed
her conquered territories, we should never have heard
of the wrongs of the one or the other.
In my morning's ride, the day before I left Gwalior,
I saw a fine leopard standing by the side of the most
frequented road, and staring at every one who
passed. It was held by two men, who sat by and
talked to it as if it had been a human being. I
thought it was an animal for show, and I was about
10 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to give them something, when they told me that
they were servants of the Maha Rajah, and were
training the leopard to bear the sight and society of
man. " It had," they said, " been caught about three
months ago in the jungles, where it could never bear
the sight of man, or of any animal that it could not
prey upon ; and must be kept upon the most fre-
quented road till quite tamed. Leopards taken
when very young would," they said, " do very well
as pets, but never answered for hunting; a good
leopard for hunting must, before taken, be allowed
to be a season or two providing for himself, and
living upon the deer he takes in the jungles and
plains."
11
CHAPTER II.
DHOLEPORE, CAPITAL OF THE JAT CHIEFS OF GOHUD — CON-
SEQUENCE OF OBSTACLES TO THE PROSECUTION OF ROB-
BERS.
On the morning of the 26th we sent on one tent,
with the intention of following it in the afternoon ;
but about three o'clock a thunder-storm came on so
heavily, that I was afraid that which we occupied
would come down upon us ; and putting my wife
and child in a palankeen, I took them to the dwell-
ing of an old Byragee, about two hundred yards from
us. He received us very kindly, and paid us many
compliments about the honour we had conferred upon
him. He was a kind and, I think, a very good old
man, and had six disciples who seemed to reverence
him very much. A large stone image of Hoonooman,
the monkey god, painted red, and a good store of
buffalos, very comfortably sheltered from the " piti-
less storm," were in an inner court. The peacocks in
dozens sought shelter under the walls and in the tree
12 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
that stood in the courtyard ; and I believe that they
would have come into the old man's apartments had
they not seen our white faces there. I had a
great deal of talk with him, but did not take any
notes of it. These old Byragees, who spend the
early and middle periods of life as disciples in pil-
grimages to the celebrated temples of their god
Vishnu, in all parts of India, and the latter part of
it as high priests or apostles, in listening to the re-
ports of the numerous disciples employed in similar
wanderings, are perhaps the most intelligent men in
the country. They are from all the castes and classes
of society. The lowest Hindoo may become a
Byragee, and the very highest are often tempted to
become so ; the service of the god to which they
devote themselves levelling all distinctions. Few of
them can write or read, but they are shrewd ob-
servers of men and things, and often exceedingly
agreeable and instructive companions to those who
understand them and can make them enter into un-
reserved conversation. Our tent stood out the storm
pretty well, but we were obliged to defer our march
till next day. On the afternoon of the 27th we
went on twelve miles, over a plain of deep alluvion,
through which two rivers have cut their way to the
Chumbul; and, as usual, the ravines along their
banks are deep, long, and dreary.
About half way we were overtaken by one of the
heaviest showers of rain I ever saw ; it threat-
ened us from neither side, but began to descend from
REMARKABLE SHOWER. 13
an apparently small bed of clouds directly over our
heads, which seemed to spread out on every side as
the rain fell, and fill the whole vault of heaven with
one dark and dense mass. The wind changed fre-
quently; and in less than half an hour the whole
surface of the country over which we were travelling
was under water. This dense mass of clouds passed
off in about two hours to the east ; but twice, when
the sun opened and beamed divinely upon us in a
cloudless sky to the west, the wind changed suddenly
round, and rushed back angrily from the east, to fill
up the space which had been quickly rarified by the
genial heat of its rays, till we were again enveloped
in darkness, and began to despair of reaching any
human habitation before night. Some hail fell
among the rain, but not large enough to hurt any
one. The thunder was loud and often startling to
the strongest nerves ; and the lightning vivid and
almost incessant. We managed to keep the road
because it was merely a beaten pathway below the
common level of the country, and we could trace it
by the greater depth of the water, and the absence
of all shrubs and grass. All roads in India soon
become water-courses — they are nowhere metalled ;
and, being left for four or five months every year
without rain, their soil is reduced to powder by
friction, and carried off by the winds over the sur-
rounding country. I was on horseback, but my wife
and child were secure in a good palankeen that
sheltered them from the rain. The bearers were
14 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
obliged to move with great caution and slowly, and
I sent on every person I could spare that they might
heep moving, for the cold blast blowing over their
thin and wet clothes seemed intolerable to those who
were idle. My child's playmate, Gholab, a lad of
about ten years of age, resolutely kept by the side of
the palankeen, trotting through the water with his
teeth chattering as if he had been in an ague. The
rain at last ceased, and the sky in the west cleared
up beautifully about half an hour before sunset.
Little Gholab threw off his stuffed and quilted vest,
and got a good dry English blanket to wrap round
him from the palankeen. We soon after reached a
small village, in which I treated all who had remained
with us to as much coarse sugar (goor) as they could
eat ; and as people of all castes can eat of sweet-
meats from the hands of confectioners without pre-
judice to their caste, and this sugar is considered to
be the best of all good things for guarding against
colds in man or beast, they all ate very heartily, and
went on in high spirits. As the sun sank before us
on the left, a bright moon shone out upon us from
the right, and about an hour after dark we reached
our tents on the north bank of the Kooaree river,
where we found an excellent dinner for ourselves?
and good fires, and good shelter for our servants.
Little rain had fallen near the tents, and the river
Kooaree, over which we had to cross, had not for-
tunately much swelled; nor did much fall on the
ground we had left ; and as the tents there had been
DHOLEPORE. 15
struck and laden before it came on, they came up the
next morning early, and went on to our next ground.
On the 28th, we went on to Dholepore, the capital
of the Jat chiefs of Gohud, on the left bank of the
Chumbul, over a plain with a variety of crops, but
not one that requires two seasons to reach maturity.
The soil excellent in quality and deep, but not a tree
anywhere to be seen, nor any such thing as a work
of ornament or general utility of any kind. We
saw the fort of Dholepore at a distance of six miles,
rising apparently from the surface of the level plain ;
but in reality situated on the summit of the opposite
and high bank of a large river, its foundation at least
one hundred feet above the level of the water. The
immense pandemonia of ravines that separated us
from this fort, were not visible till we began to descend
into them some two or three miles from the bed of
the river. Like all the ravines that border the
rivers in these parts, they are naked, gloomy, and
ghastly, and the knowledge that no solitary traveller
is ever safe in them, does not tend to improve the im-
pression they make upon us. The river is a beautiful
clear stream, here flowing over a bed of fine sand with
a motion so gentle, that one can hardly conceive it
is she who has played such fantastic tricks along the
borders, and made such " frightful gashes" in them.
As we passed over this noble reach of the river
Chumbul in a ferrj^-boat, the boatman told us of the
magnificent bridge formed here by the Byza Bae
for Lord William Bentinck in the year 1832, from
10
16 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
boats brought down from Agra for the purpose.
" Little," said they, " did it avail her with the Gover-
nor-general in her hour of need !"
The town of Dholepore lies some short way in
from the north bank of the Chumbul, at the extre-
mity of a range of sandstone hills which runs diago-
nally across that of Gwalior. This range was once
capped with basalt, and some boulders are still found
upon it in a state of rapid decomposition. It was
quite refreshing to see the beautiful mango groves on
the Dholepore side of the river, after passing through
a large tract of country in which no tree of any kind
was to be seen. On returning from a long ride over
the range of sandstone hills the morning after we
reached Dholepore, I passed through an encamp-
ment of camels taking rude iron from some mines in
the hills to the south towards Agra. They waited
here within the frontier of a native state for a pass
from the Agra custom-house, lest any one should,
after they enter our frontier, pretend that they were
going to smuggle it, and thus get them into trouble.
"Are you not," said I, "afraid to remain here so
near the ravines of the Chumbul, where thieves are
said to be so numerous ?" " Not at all," replied
they. "I suppose thieves do not think it worth
while to steal rude iron ?" " Thieves, sir, think it
worth their while to steal anything they can get,
but we do not fear them much here." " Where then
do you fear them much ?" " We fear them when
we get into the Company's territories." " And how
INCONVENIENCE OF LAW. 17
is this, when we have good police establishments,
and the Dholepore people none ? " " When the
Dholepore people get hold of a thief, they make him
disgorge all that he has got of our property ybr us,
and they confiscate all the rest that he has for them-
selves ; and cut off his nose or his hands, and turn
him adrift to deter others. You, on the contrary,
when you get hold of a thief, worry us to death in the
prosecution of your courts ; and when we have proved
the robbery to your satisfaction, you leave all this
ill-gottten wealth to his family, and provide him with
good food and clothing yourselves, while he works
for you a couple of years on the roads. The con-
sequence is, that here fellows are afraid to rob a
traveller if they find him at all on his guard, as we
generally are ; while in your districts they rob us
where and when they like." " But, my friends, you
are sure to recover what we do get of your property
from the thieves." " Not quite sure of that neither,"
said they ; " for the greater part is generally ab-
sorbed on its way back to us through the officers of
your court ; and we would always rather put up with
the first loss, than run the risk of a greater by pro-
secution, if we happen to get robbed within the
Company's territories." The loss and annoyance to
which prosecutors and witnesses are subject in our
courts, are a source of very great evil to the country.
They enable police officers everywhere to grow rich
upon the concealment of crimes. The man who
has been robbed will bribe them to conceal the
VOL. IL c
18 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
robbery, that he may escape the further loss of the
prosecution in our courts, generally very distant ;
and the witnesses will bribe them, to avoid attending
to give evidence; the whole village communities
bribe them, because every man feels that they have
the power of getting him summoned to the court in
some capacity or other if they like ; and that they
will certainly like to do so if not bribed. The ob-
stacles which our system opposes to the successful
prosecution of robbers of all denominations and
descriptions, deprive our government of all popular
support in the administration of criminal justice ; and
this is considered everywhere to be the worst, and in-
deed the only radically bad feature of our government.
No magistrate hopes to get a final conviction against
one in four of the most atrocious gang of robbers and
murderers of his district, and his only resource is in
the security laws which enable him to keep them in a
jail under a requisition of security for short periods.
To this an idle or apathetic magistrate will not have
recourse ; and under him these robbers have a free
license.
In England, a judicial acquittal does not send
back the culprit to follow the same trade in the
same field as in India ; for the published proceedings
of the court bring down upon him the indignation of
society — the moral and religious feelings of his fellow
men are arrayed against him, and from these salutary
checks no flaw in the indictment can save him. Not
so in India. There no moral or religious feelings in-
HINDOO SMASHER. 19
terpose to assist or to supply the deficiencies of the
penal law. Provided he eats, drinks, smokes,
marries, and makes his offerings to his priest accord-
ing to the rules of his caste, the robber and the mur-
derer incurs no odium in the circle in which he
moves, either religious or moral, and this is the only
circle for whose feelings he has any regard.
The man who passed off his bad coin at Duteea,
passed off more at Dholepore while my advanced
people were coming in, pretending that he wanted
things for me, and was in a great hurry to be ready
with them at my tents by the time I came up.
The bad rupees were brought to a native officer
of my guard, who went with the shopkeepers in
search of the knave, but he could nowhere be found.
The gates of the town were shut up all night at my
suggestion, and in the morning every lodging-house
in the town was searched for him in vain — he had
gone on. I had left some sharp men behind me, ex-
pecting that he would endeavour to pass off his bad
money immediately after my departure ; but in ex-
pectation of this he was now evidently keeping a
little in advance of me. I sent on some men with
the shopkeepers whom he had cheated to our next
stage, in the hope of overtaking him ; but he had left
the place before they arrived without passing any of
his bad coin, and gone on to Agra. The shop-
keepers could not be persuaded to go any further
after him, for if they caught him, they should, they
said, have infinite trouble in prosecuting him in our
c 2
20 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
courts, without any chance of recovering from him
what they had lost !
On the 29th, we remained at Dholepore to receive
and return the visits of the young Rajah, or, as he is
called, the young Rana, a lad of about fifteen years
of age, very plain, and very dull. He came about
ten o'clock in the forenoon with a very respectable
and well-dressed retinue, and a tolerable show of
elephants and horses. The uniforms of his guards
were made after those of our own soldiers, and did
not please me half so much as those of the Duteea
guards, who were permitted to consult their own
tastes ; and the music of the drums and fifes seemed
to me infinitely inferior to that of the mounted min-
strels of my old friend Pareechut. The lad had with
him about a dozen old public servants entitled to
chairs, some of whom had served his father above
thirty years; while the ancestors of others had
served his grandfathers and great grandfathers, and
1 could not help telling the lad in their presence,
" That these were the greatest ornament of a prince's
throne, and the best signs and pledges of a good
government." They were all evidently much pleased
at the compliment, and I thought they deserved to
be pleased, from the good character they bore among
the peasantry of the country. I mentioned that I
had understood the boatman of the Chumbul at
Dholepore never caught or ate fish. The lad seemed
embarrassed, and the minister took upon himself to
reply, " That there was no market for it, since the
JATS. 21
Hindoos of Dholepore never ate fish, and the Maho-
medans had all disappeared." I asked the lad>
" Whether he was fond of hunting ?" He seemed
again confounded ; and the minister said, " That his
highness never either hunted or fished, as people of
his caste were prohibited from destroying life." *' And
yet," said I, " they have often showed themselves
good soldiers in battle." They were all pleased
again, and said, " That they were not prohibited
from killing tigers ; but that there was no jungle of
any kind near Dholepore, and, consequently, no
tigers to be found." The Jats are descendants of the
Getae, and were people of very low caste, or rather
of no caste at all among the Hindoos ; and they are
now trying to raise themselves by abstaining from
eating and killing animals. Among Hindoos this is
everything ; a man of low caste is a man who " sub
kooch khata," sticks at nothing in the way of eat-
ing ; and a man of high caste, is a man who abstains
from eating anything but vegetable or farinaceous
food: if at the* same time he abstains from usino: in
his cook-room all woods but one, and has that one
washed before he uses it, he is canonized. Having
attained to military renown and territorial dominion,
in the usual way, by robbery, the Jats naturally
enough seek the distinction of high caste, to enable
them the better to enjoy their position in society.
It had been stipulated that I should walk to the
bottom of the steps to receive the Rana, as is the
usage on such occasions, and carpets were accordingly
22 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
spread thus far. Here he got out of his chair, and
I led him into the large room of the bungalow,
which we occupied during our stay, followed by all
his and my attendants. The bungalow had been
built by the former British resident at Gwalior, the
Honourable R. Cavendish, for his residence during
the latter part of the rains when Gwalior is consi-
dered to be unhealthy. At his departure, the Rana
purchased this bungalow for the use of European
gentlemen and ladies passing through his capital.
In the afternoon, about four o'clock, I went to
return his visit, in a small palace not yet finished, a
pretty piece of miniature fortification, surrounded by
what they call their chownee, or cantonments. The
streets are good, and the buildings neat and sub-
stantial ; but there is nothing to strike or particularly
interest the stranger. The interview passed off with-
out anything remarkable ; and I was more than ever
pleased with the people by whom this young chief is
surrounded. Indeed, I had much reason to be
pleased with the manners of all the people on this
side of the Chumbul. They are those of a people
well pleased to see English gentlemen among them,
and anxious to make themselves useful and agreeable
to us. They know that their chief is indebted to
the British government for all the country he has,
and that he would be swallowed up by Scindhea's
greedy army were not the sevenfold shield of the
honourable Company spread over him. His esta-
blishments, civil and military, like those of the Bun-
THE DHOLEPORE CHIEF. 28
delcund chiefs, are raised from the peasantry and
yeomanry of the country ; who all, in consequence,
feel an interest in the prosperity and independent
respectability of their chief. On the Gwalior side,
the members of all the public establishments know
and feel, that it is we who interpose and prevent
their master from swallowing up all his neighbours,
and thereby having increased means of promoting
their interest and that of their friends ; and they
detest us all most cordially in consequence. The
peasantry of the Gwalior territories seem to consider
their own government a kind of minotaur, which
they would be glad to see destroyed, no matter how
or by whom ; since it gives no lucrative or honour-
able employment to any of their members, so as to
interest either their pride or their affections ; nor
throws back among them for purposes of local
advantage, any of the produce of their land and
labour which it exacts. It is worthy of remark, that
though the Dholepore chief is peculiarly the creature
of the British government, and indebted to it for all
he has or ever will have, and though he has never had
anything, and never can have or can hope to have
anything, from the poor pageant of the house of
Tymour, who now sits on the throne of Delhi, — yet
on his seal of office he declares himself to be the
slave and creature of that imperial " warrior for the
faith of Islam." As he abstains from eating the
good fish of the river Chumbul to enhance his claim
to caste among Hindoos, so he abstains from acknow-
24 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
ledging his deep debt of gratitude to the honourable
Company, or the British government, with a view to
give the rust of age to his rank and title — to acknow-
ledge himself a creature of the British government,
were to acknowledge that he was a man of yesterday
— to acknowledge himself the slave of the Emperor,
is to claim for his poor veins " the blood of a line of
kings." The petty chiefs of Bundelcund, who are
in the same manner especially dependent on the
British government, do the same thing.
At Dholepore, there are some noble old mosques
and mausoleums built three hundred years ago, in
the reign of the Emperor Hoomaeon, by some great
officers of his government, whose remains still rest
undisturbed among them, though the names of their
families have been for many ages forgotten, and no
men of their creed now live near to demand for them
the respect of the living. These tombs are all elabo-
rately built and worked out of the fine freestone of
the country ; and the trellis work upon some of their
stone screens, is still as beautiful as when first made.
There are Persian and Arabic inscriptions upon all
of them ; and I found from them that one of the
mosques had been built by the Emperor Shah Jehan
in A. D. 1634, when he little dreamed that his three
sons would here meet to fight the great fight for the
throne, while he yet sat upon it.
Pku^^.
TOMB OrHOOMAEEOON
MAUSOLEUM
of
NlZAMOODJiZ:^ OULEEA
TOKBOrTHE SAINT SALEEM
at
FUTTEHPORE SECBLEE.
MAUSOLEUM
OrTHE
POET RHUSROO
DayOU^ l.i*"lo the Quee
25
CHAPTER III.
INFLUENCE OF ELECTRICITY ON VEGETATION AGRA AND
ITS BUILDINGS.
On the 30th and 31st, we went twenty-four miles
over a dry plain, with a sandy soil covered with ex-
cellent crops where irrigated, and very poor ones
where not. We met several long strings of camels
carrying grain from Agra to Gwalior. A single man
takes charge of twenty or thirty, holding the bridle
of the first, and walking on before its nose. The
bridles of all the rest are tied one after the other to
the saddles of those immediately before them, and
all move along after the leader in single file.
Water must tend to attract and to impart to vege-
tables a good deal of electricity and other vivifying
powers that would otherwise lie dormant in the
earth at a distance from their roots. The mere
circumstance of moistening the earth from within
reach of the roots, would not be sufficient to account
for the vast difference between the crops of fields
26 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
that are irrigated, and those that are not. One day,
in the middle of the season of the rains, I asked mj
gardener, while walking with him over my grounds,
how it was that some of the fine clusters of bamboos
h£Cd not yet begun to throw out their shoots. " We
have not yet had a thunder-storm, sir," replied the
gardener. "What in the name of God has the
thunder-storm to do with the shooting of the bam-
boos ?" asked I in amazement. " I don't know, sir,"
said he, " but certain it is, that no bamboos begin to
throw out their shoots well till we get a good deal
of thunder and lightning." The thunder and light-
ning came, and the bamboo shoots soon followed in
abundance. It might have been a mere coincidence ;
or the tall bamboos may bring down from the pass-
ing clouds and convey to the roots the electric fluid
they require for nourishment, or for conductors of
nourishment.* In the Isle of France, people have a
notion that the mushrooms always come up best after
a thunder-storm. Electricity has certainly much
more to do in the business of the world than we are
yet aware of, in the animal, mineral, and vegetable
developements.
At our ground this day, I met a very re-
spectable and intelligent native revenue oflicer
* It is not perhaps generally known, though it deserves to be
so, that the bamboo seeds only once, and dies immediately after
seeding. All bamboos from the same seed die at the same time,
wherever they may have been planted. The life of the common
large bamboo is about fifty years.
CHIEFS AND GODS. 27
who had been employed to settle some boundary
disputes between the yeoman of our territory
and those of the adjoining territory of Dholepore.
" The honourable Company's rights and those of its
yeomen must," said he, " be inevitably sacrificed in
all such cases ; for the Dholepore chief, or his minis-
ter, says to all their witnesses, ' You are of course
expected to speak the truth regarding the land in
dispute ; but, by the sacred stream of the Ganges, if
you speak so as to lose this estate one inch of it, you
lose both your ears !' — and most assuredly would they
lose them," continued he, " if they were not to swear
most resolutely, that all the land in question be-
longed to Dholepore. Had I the same power to cut
off the ears of witnesses on our side, we should meet
on equal terms. Were I to threaten to cut them
off they would laugh in my face." There was much
truth in what the poor man said, for the Dholepore
witnesses always make it appear that the claims of
their yeomen are just and moderate, and a salutary
dread of losing their ears operates no doubt very
strongly. The threatened punishment of the prince
is quick, while that of the gods, however just, is cer-
tainly very slow — " ut sit magna, tamen certe lenta
ira Deorum est."
On the 1st of January, 1836, we went on sixteen
miles to Agra, and when within about six miles of
the city, the dome and minaret of the Taj opened
upon us from behind a small grove of fruit trees.
28 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
close by us on the side of the road. The morning
was not clear, but it was a good one for a first sight
of this building, which appeared larger through the
dusty haze than it would have done through a clear
sky. For five and twenty years of my life had I
been looking forward to the sight now before me.
Of no building on earth had I heard so much as of
this, which contains the remains of the Emperor
Shah Jehan, and his wife ; the father and mother of
the children, whose struggles for dominion have been
already described. We had ordered our tents to be
pitched in the gardens of this splendid mausoleum,
that we might have our full of the enjoyment which
everybody seemed to derive from it ; and we reached
them about eight o'clock. I went over the whole
building before I entered my tent ; and from the
first sight of the dome and minarets on the distant
horizon, to the last glance back from my tent-ropes
to the magnificent gateway that forms the entrance
from our camp to the quadrangle in which they
stand, I can truly say that everything surpassed my
expectations. I at first thought the dome formed
too large a portion of the whole building ; that its
neck was too long and too much exposed ; and that
the minarets were too plain in their design ; but
after going repeatedly over every part, and examining
the tout ensemble from all possible positions, and in
all possible lights, from that of the full moon at mid-
night in a cloudless sky, to that of the noon-day
' %
.»
I
THE TAJ. 29
sun, the mind seemed to repose in the calm per-
suasion, that there was an entire harmony of parts, a
faultless congregation of architectural beauties, on
which it could dwell for ever without fatigue.
After my quarter of a century of anticipated
pleasure, I went on from part to part in the expec-
tation that I must by-and-by come to something
that would disappoint me; but no, the emotion
which one feels at first is never impaired : on the
contrary, it goes on improving from the first coup
d'ceil of the dome in the distance, to the minute in-
spection of the last flower upon the screen round
the tomb. One returns and returns to it with un-
diminished pleasure; and though at every return
one's attention to the smaller parts becomes less and
less, the pleasure which he derives from the contem-
plation of the greater, and of the whole collectively,
seems to increase ; and he leaves it with a feeling of
regret, that he could not have it all his life within
his reach ; and of assurance that the image of what
he has seen can never be obliterated from his mind
" while memory holds her seat." I felt that it was
to me in architecture what Kemble and his sister,
Mrs. Siddons, had been to me a quarter of a century
before in acting, something that must stand alone —
something that I should never cease to see clearly in
my mind's eye, and yet never be able clearly to
describe to others.
The Emperor and his Queen lie buried side by
side in a vault beneath the building, to which we
30 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
descend by a flight of steps. Their remains are
covered by two slabs of marble ; and directly over
these slabs, upon the floor above, in the great centre
room under the dome, stand two other slabs, or ceno-
taphs, of the same marble exquisitely worked in
mosaic. Upon that of the Queen, amid wreaths of
flowers, are worked in black letters passages from
the Koran ; one of which, at the end facing the en^
trance, terminates with, " And defend us from the
tribe of unbelievers ;" that very tribe which are now
gathered from all quarters of the civilized world, to
admire the splendour of the tomb which was raised
to perpetuate her name.''^ On the slab over her
husband, there are no passages from the Koran;
merely mosaic work of flowers, with his name, and
the date of his death. I asked some of the learned
Mahomedan attendants, the cause of this difference ;
and was told, that Shah Jehan had himself designed
the slab over his wife, and saw no harm in inscribing
the words of God upon it ; but that the slab over
himself was designed by his more pious son, Ouruijg-
zebe, who did not think it right to place these holy
words upon a stone which the foot of man might
some day touch, though that stone covered the re-
mains of his own father.f Such was this " man of
* No European had ever before, I believe, noticed this.
t The Empress had been a good deal exasperated against the
Portuguese and Dutch, by the treatment her husband received
from them when a fugitive, after an unsuccessful rebellion against
his father ; and her hatred to them extends, in some degree, to
i^v- ■ -^•y-:i^?s^^
^■i<^m
i
(V
THE TAJ. 31
prayers," this Nemazee, as Dara called him, to the
last. He knew mankind well, and above all that
part of them which he was called upon to govern ;
and which he governed for forty years with so much
ability.
' The slab over the Queen occupies the centre of
the apartments above, and in the vault below, and
those over her husband lie on the left as we enter.
At one end of the slab in the vault, her name is in-
wrought, "Moontaj i mahul, Ranoo Begum," the
ornament of the palace, Ranoo Begum ; and the
date of her death, 1631. That of her husband and
the date of his death, 1666, are inwrought upon the
other. She died in giving birth to a daughter, who
is said to have been heard crying in the womb by
herself and her other daughters. She sent for the
Emperor, and told him, "that she believed no
mother had ever been known to survive the birth of
a child so heard, and that she felt her end was near.
She had," she said, " only two requests to make :
first, that he would not marry again after her death,
and get children to contend with hers for his favour
and dominions ; and secondly, that he would build
for her the tomb with which he had promised to
perpetuate her name." She died in giving birth to
the child, as might have been expected, when the
Emperor in his anxiety called all the midwives of
the city, and all his secretaries of state and privy
all Christians, whom she considered to be included in the term
kajer, or unbeliever.
5
32 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
counsellors to prescribe for her ! Both her dying
requests were granted. Her tomb was commenced
upon immediately. No woman ever pretended to
supply her place in the palace ; nor had Shah Jehan,
that we know of, children by any other. Tavernier
saw this building commenced and finished ; and tells
us, that it occupied twenty thousand men for twenty-
two years. The mausoleum itself and all the build-
ings that appertain to it, cost 8,17,48026, three
crore, seventeen lacks, forty-eight thousand and
tw^enty-six rupees, or 3,174,802 pounds sterling ; —
three million, one hundred and seventy-four thousand,
eight hundred and two ! I asked my wife, when
she had gone over it, what she thought of the build-
ing ? "I cannot," said she, " tell you what I think,
for I know not how to criticise such a building, but
I can tell you what I feel. I would die to-morrow
to have such another over me !" This is what many
a lady has felt, no doubt.
The building stands upon the north side of a large
quadrangle, looking down into the clear blue stream
of the river Jumna, while the other three sides are
enclosed with a high wall of red sandstone. The
entrance to this quadrangle is through a magnificent
gateway in the south side opposite the tomb ; and on
the other two sides are very beautiful mosques facing
inwards, and corresponding exactly with each other
in size, design, and execution. That on the left or
west side, is the only one that can be used as a
mosque or church ; because the faces of the audience,
THE TAJ. 33
and those of all men at their prayers, must be turned
towards the tomb of their prophet to the west. The
pulpit is always against the dead wall at the back,
and the audience face towards it, standing with their
backs to the open front of the building. The church
on the east side is used for the accommodation of
visitors, or for any secular purpose ; and was built
merely as a jowab (answer) to the real one. The
whole area is laid out in square parterres, planted
with flowers and shrubs in the centre, and with fine
trees, chiefly the cypress, all round the borders,
forming an avenue to every road. These roads are
all paved with slabs of freestone, and have, running
along the centre, a basin, with a row of jets d'eau in
the middle from one extremity to the other. These
are made to play almost every evening, when the
gardens are much frequented by the European
gentlemen and ladies of the station, and by natives
of all religions and sects. The quadrangle is from
east to west nine hundred and sixty-four feet ; and
from north to south three hundred and twenty-
nine.
The mausoleum itself, the terrace upon which it
stands, and the minarets, are all formed of the finest
white marble inlaid with precious stones. The wall
around the quadrangle, including the river face of
the terrace, is made of red sandstone, with cupolas
and pillars of the same white marble. The inside
of the churches and apartments in and upon the walls
are all lined with marble or with stucco work that
VOL. II. D
34 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
looks like marble ; but on the outside, the red sand-
stone resembles uncovered bricks. The dazzling
white marble of the mausoleum itself rising over the
red wall, is apt, at first sight, to make a disagreeable
impression, from the idea of a whitewashed head to
an unfinished building ; but this impression is very
soon removed, and tends perhaps to improve that
which is afterwards received from a nearer inspec-
tion. The marble was all brought from the Jeypore
territories upon wheeled carriages, a distance, I be-
lieve, of two or three hundred miles; and the sandstone
from the neighbourhood of Dholepore and Futtehpore
Secree. Shah Jehan is said to have inherited his par-
tiality for this colour from his grandfather, Akbar,
who constructed almost all his buildings from the same
stone, though he might have had the beautiful white
freestone at the same cost. What was figuratively
said of Augustus may be most literally said of Shah
Jehan : he found the cities (Agra and Delhi) all
brick, and left them all marble ; for all the marble
buildings, and additions to buildings, were formed by
him.
This magnificent building and the palaces at Agra
and Delhi were, I believe, designed by Austin de
Bordeux, a Frenchman of great talent and merit, in
whose ability and integrity the Emperor placed much
reliance. He was called by the natives Oostan Eesau,
Nadir ol Asur, the wonderful of the age ; and for his
office of nuksha nuwees, or plan drawer, he received
a regular salary of one thousand rupees a month.
FRENCH ARCHITECT. 35
with occasional presents, that made his income very
larg-e. He had finished the palace of Delhi, and the
mausoleum and palace of Agra ; and was engaged in
designing a silver ceiling for one of the galleries in
the latter, when he was sent by the Emperor to
settle some affairs of great importance at Goa. He
died at Cochin on his way back ; and is supposed to
have been poisoned by the Portuguese, who were ex-
tremely jealous of his influence at court. He left a
son by a native, called Mahomed Shureef, who was
employed as an architect on a salary of five hundred
rupees a month, and who became, as I conclude from
his name, a Mussulman. Shah Jehan had com-
menced his own tomb on the opposite side of the
Jumna ; and both were to have been united by a
bridge. The death of Austin de Bordeux, and the
wars between his sons that followed, prevented the
completion of these magnificent works.*
We were encamped upon a fine green sward out-
side the entrance to the south, in a kind of large
court, enclosed by a high cloistered wall, in which
all our attendants and followers found shelter.
Colonel and Mrs. King, and some other gentlemen,
* I would not be thought very positive upon this point. I
think I am right, but feel that I may be wrong. Tavernier says,
that Shah Jehan was obliged to give up his intention of com-
pleting a silver ceiling to the great hall in the palace, because
Austin de Bordeux had been killed, and no other person could
venture to attempt it. Oostan Eesau, in all the Persian accounts
stands first among the salaried architects.
D 2
36 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
were encamped in the same place, and for the same
purpose ; and we had a very agreeable party. The
band of our friend Major Godby's regiment played
sometimes in the evening upon the terrace of the
Taj ; but of all the complicated music ever heard upon
earth, that of a flute blown gently in the vault below,
where the remains of the Emperor and his consort
repose, as the sound rises to the dome amidst a hun-
dred arched alcoves around, and descends in heavenly
reverberations upon those who sit or recline upon
the cenotaphs above the vault, is perhaps the finest
to an inartificial ear. We feel as if it were from
heaven, and breathed by angels ; it is to the ear what
the building itself is to the eye ; but unhappily it
cannot, like the building, live in our recollections.
All that we can, in after life, remember is, that it
was heavenly, and produced heavenly emotions.
We went all over the palace in the fort, a very
magnificent building constructed by Shah Jehan, with-
in fortifications raised by his grandfather Akbar. The
fret-work and mosaic upon the marble pillars and
panels are equal to those of the Taj, or, if possible,
superior ; nor is the design or execution in any re-
spect inferior, and yet an European feels, that he
could get a house much more commodious, and more
to his taste, for a much less sum than must have been
expended upon it. The Marquis of Hastings, when
Governor-General of India, broke up one of the most
beautiful of the marble baths of this palace to send
home to George IV. of England, then Prince
PEARL MOSQUE. 37
Regent ; and the rest of the marble of the suite of
apartments from which it had been taken, with all
its exquisite fret- work and mosaic, was afterwards
sold by auction, on account of our government, by
order of the then Governor-General, Lord W. Ben-
tinck. Had these things fetched the price expected,
it is probable that the whole of the palace, and even
the Taj itself, would have been pulled down, and sold
in the same manner.
We visited the Motee Musjid, or pearl mosque.
It was built by Shah Jehan, entirely of white
marble; and completed, as we learn from an in-
scription on the portico, in the year a. d. 1656.
There is no mosaic upon any of the pillars or
panels of this mosque ; but the design and execu-
tion of the flowers in bas-relief are exceedingly
beautiful. It is a chaste, simple, and majestic build-
ing ; and is by some people admired even more than
the Taj, because they have heard less of it; and their
pleasure is heightened by surprise. We feel that it
is to all other mosques, what the Taj is to all other
mausoleums, 2i facile princeps. Few, however, go to
see the mosque of pearls more than once, stay as
long as they will at Agra ; and when they go, the
building appears less and less to deserve their admi-
ration, while they go to the Taj as often as they can,
and find new beauties in it, or new feelings of plea-
sure from it, every time.*
* I would, however, here enter my humble protest against the
quadrille and tiffin parties, which are sometimes given to the
38 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
I went out to visit the tomb of the Emperor
Akbar, at Secundra, a magnificent building, raised
over him by his son, the Emperor Jehangeer. His
remains lie deposited in a deep vault under the
centre, and are covered by a plain slab of marble,
without fret- work or mosaic. On the top of the
building, which is three or four stories high, is ano-
ther marble slab corresponding with the one in the
vault below. This is beautifully carved, with the
" Now Nubbey Nam" — the ninety-nine names or at-
tributes of the Deity — from the Koran. It is covered
by an awning, not to protect the tomb, but to de-
fend the " words of God'' from the rain, as my cice-
rone assured me. He told me that the attendants
upon this tomb used to have the hay of the large
quadrangle of forty acres, in which it stands, in ad-
dition to their small salaries, and that it yielded
them some fifty rupees a year ; but the chief native
officer of the Taj establishment demanded half of the
sum, and when they refused to give him so much,
he persuaded his master, the European engineer, with
much difficulty, to take all this hay for the public
cattle ! " And why could you not adjust such a
European ladies and gentlemen of the station at this imperial
tomb ; drinking and dancing are, no doubt, very good things in
their season, even in a hot climate, but they are sadly out of
place in a sepulchre, and never fail to shock the good feelings of
sober-minded people when given there. Good church music gives
us great pleasure, without exciting us to dancing or drinking ; the
Taj does the same, at least to the sober-minded.
*^
♦x
AKBAR. 39
matter between you, without pestering the engineer ?"
" Is not this the way," said he, with emotion, " that
Hindoostan has cut its own throat, and brought in
the stranger at all times ? Have they ever had, or
can they ever have, confidence in each other, or let
each other alone to enjoy the little they have in
peace?" Considering all the circumstances of time
and place, Akbar has always appeared to me among
sovereigns, what Shakspeare was among poets ; and,
feeling as a citizen of the world, I reverenced the
marble slab that covers his bones, more perhaps than
I should that over any other sovereign with whose
history I am acquainted.
40
CHAPTER IV.
NOOR JEHAN, THE AUNT OF THE EMPRESS NOOR MAHUL,
OVER WHOSE REMAINS THE TAJ IS BUILT.
I CROSSED over the river Jumna one morning to
look at the tomb of Etmad od Doulah, the most
remarkable mausoleum in the neighbourhood, after
those of Akbar and the Taj. On my way back, I
asked one of the boatmen, who was rowing me, who
had built what appeared to me a new dome within
the fort.
" One of the Emperors, of course," said he.
" What makes you think so ?"
" Because such things are made only by Em-
perors," replied the man quietly, without relaxing his
pull at the oar.
" True, very true !" said an old Mussulman trooper,
with large white whiskers and mustachios, who had
dismounted to follow me across the river, with a
melancholy shake of the head, " very true ; who but
Emperors could do such things as these ?"
»l!iSMl' .^
NOOR JEHAN. 41
Encouraged by the trooper, the boatman con-
tinued : " The Jats and the Mahrattas did nothing
but pull do\\Ti and destroy, while they held their
accursed dominion here ; and the European gentle-
men, who now govern, seem to have no pleasure in
building anything but factories^ courts of justice, and
jails''
Feeling as an Englishman, as we all must some-
times do, be where we will, I could hardly help
wishing that the beautiful panels and pillars of the
bath-room had fetched a better price, and that
palace, Taj, and all at Agra, had gone to the ham-
mer— so sadly do they exalt the past, at the ex-
pense of the present, in the imaginations of the
people !
The tomb contains, in the centre, the remains of
Khwaja Aeeas, one of the most prominent characters
of the reign of Jehangeer, and those of his wife. The
remains of the other members of his family repose in
rooms all round them ; and are covered with slabs
of marble richly cut. It is an exceedingly beautiful
building ; but a great part of the most valuable
stones of the mosaic work have been picked out and
stolen ; and the whole is about to be sold by auction,
by a decree of the civil court, to pay the debt of the
present proprietor, who is entirely unconnected with
the family whose members repose under it, and
especially indifferent as to what becomes of their
bones. The building and garden in which it stands
were, some sixty years ago, given away, I believe, by
42 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Nujeef Khan, the prime minister, to one of his
nephews, to whose family it still belongs. Khwaja
Aeeas, a native of western Tartary, left that country
for India, where he had some relations at the impe-
rial court, who seemed likely to be able to secure
his advancement. He was a man of handsome per-
son, and of good education and address. He set out
with his wife, a bullock, and a small sum of money,
which he realized by the sale of all his other pro-
perty. The wife, who was pregnant, rode upon the
bullock, while he walked by her side. Their stock
of money had become exhausted, and they had been
three days without food in the great desert, when
she was taken in labour, and gave birth to a daughter.
The mother could hardly keep her seat on the bullock,
and the father had become too much exhausted to
afford her any support ; and in their distress they
agreed to abandon the infant. They covered it over
with leaves, and towards evening pursued their
journey. When they had gone on about a mile, and
had lost sight of the solitary shrub under which they
had left their child, the mother, in an agony of grief,
threw herself from the bullock upon the ground, ex-
claiming, " My child, my child !" Aeeas could not
resist this appeal. He went back to the spot, took
up his child, and brought it to its mother s breast.
Some traveller soon after came up and relieved their
distress, and they reached Lahore, where the Em-
peror Akbar then held his court.
Asuf Khan, a distant relation of Aeeas, held a
NOOR JEHAN. 43
high place at court, and was much in the confidence
of the Emperor. He made his kinsman his private
secretary. Much pleased with his diligence and abi-
lity, Asuf soon brought his merits to the special no-
tice of Akbar, who raised him to the command of a
thousand horse, and soon after appointed him master
of the household. From this he was promoted after-
wards to that of Etmad od Doulah, or high treasurer,
one of the first ministers. The daughter, who had
been born in the desert, became celebrated for her
great beauty, parts, and accomplishments, and won
the affections of the eldest son of the Emperor, the
prince Saleem, who saw her unveiled, by accident, at
a party given by her father. She had been betrothed
before this to Shere Afgun, a Toorkaman gentleman
of rank at court, and of great repute for his high
spirit, strength, and courage. Saleem in vain en-
treated his father to interpose his authority to make
him resign his claim in his favour ; and she became
the wife of Shere Afgun. Saleem dared not, during
his father's life, make any open attempt to revenge
himself; but he, and those courtiers who thought it
their interest to worship the rising sun, soon made
his residence at the capital disagreeable, and he re-
tired with his wife to Bengal, where he obtained
from the governor the superintendency of the district
of Burdwan.
Saleem succeeded his father on the throne ; and
no longer restrained by his rigid sense of justice, he
recalled Shere Afgun to court at Delhi. He was
7
44 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
promoted to high offices, and concluded that time
had erased from the Emperor's mind all feelings of
love for his wife, and of resentment against his suc-
cessful rival — but he was mistaken : Saleem had never
forgiven him, nor had the desire to possess his wife at
all diminished. A Mahomedan of such high feeling
and station would, the Emperor knew, never survive
the dishonour, or suspected dishonour, of his wife ;
and to possess her he must make away with the hus-
band. He dared not do this openly, because he
dreaded the universal odium in which he knew it
would involve him ; and he made several unsuccess-
ful attempts to get him removed, by means that
might not appear to have been contrived or executed
by his orders. At one time he designedly, in his
own presence, placed him in a situation where the
pride of the chief made him contend, single handed,
with a large tiger, which he killed ; and at another
with a mad elephant, whose probosces he cut off
with his sword ; but the Emperor's motives in all
these attempts to put him foremost in situations
of danger, became so manifest, that Shore Afgun so-
licited, and obtained permission, to retire with his
wife to Bengal.
The governor of this province, Kutub, having been
made acquainted with the Emperor's desire to have
the chief made away with, hired forty ruffians, who
stole into his house one night. There happened to
be nobody else in the house ; but one of the party,
touched by remorse on seeing so fine a man about to
NOOR JEHAN. 45
be murdered in his sleep, called out to him to defend
himself. He seized his sword, placed himself in one
corner of the room, and defended himself so well,
that nearly one-half of the party are said to have been
killed or wounded. The rest all made off, persuaded
that he was endowed with supernatural force. After
this escape he retired from Tanda, the capital of
Bengal, to his old residence of Burdwan. Soon after
Kutub came to the city with a splendid retinue, on
the pretence of making his tour of inspection through
the provinces under his charge, but, in reality, for
the sole purpose of making away with Shere Afgun,
who, as soon as he heard of his approach, came out
some miles to meet him on horseback, attended by
only two followers. He was received with marks of
great consideration, and he and the governor rode on
for some time side by side, talking of their mutual
friends, and the happy days they had spent together
at the capital. At last, as they were about to enter the
city, the governor suddenly called for his elephant of
state, and mounted, saying, " it would be necessary
for him to pass through the city, on the first visit, in
some state." Shere sat on horseback while he
mounted, but one of the governor's pikemen struck
his horse, and began to drive him before them.
Shere drew his sword, and seeing all the governor s
followers with their's ready drawn to attack him, he
concluded at once that the aftront had been put
upon him by the orders of Kutub, and with the de-
sign to provoke him to an unequal fight. Deter-
46 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
mined to have his life first, he spurred his horse
upon the elephant, and killed Kutub with his spear.
He now attacked the principal officers, and five noble-
men of the first rank fell by his sword. All the
crowd now rolled back, and formed a circle round
Shere and his two companions, and galled them
with arrows and musket-balls from a distance. His
horse fell under him and expired ; and having re-
ceived six balls and several arrows in his body, Shere
himself at last fell exhausted to the ground ; and the
crowd, seeing the sword drop from his grasp, rushed
in and cut him to pieces.
His widow was sent, " nothing loth," to court, with
her only child, (a daughter.) She was graciously re-
ceived by the Emperor's mother, and had apartments
assigned her in the palace ; but the Emperor him-
self is said not to have seen her for four years, during
which time the fame of her beauty, talents, and ac-
complishments, filled the palace and city. After the
expiration of this time, the feelings, whatever they
were, which prevented his seeing her subsided ; and
when he at last surprised her with a visit, he found
her to exceed all that his imagination had painted
her since their last separation. In a few days their
marriage was celebrated with great magnificence ;
and from that hour the Emperor resigned the reins
of government almost entirely into her hands ; and
till his death, under the name first of Noor Ma-
hul, light of the palace, and afterwards of Noor
Jehan, light of the world, she ruled the destinies of
i
NOOR JEHAN. 47
this great empire. Her father was now raised from
the station of high treasurer to that of prime minis-
ter. Her two brothers obtained the titles of Asuf Jah
and IlkadKhan; and the relations of the family poured
in from Tartary, in search of employment, as soon as
they heard of their success. Noor Jehan had by
Shere Afgun, as I have stated, one daughter ; but
she had never any child by the Emperor Jehan-
geer.
Asuf Jah became prime minister on the death of
his father ; and, in spite of his sister, he managed to
secure the crown to Shah Jehan, the third son of
Jehangeer, who had married his daughter, the lady
over whose remains the Taj was afterwards built.
Jehangeer's eldest son, Khosroo, had his eyes put out
by his father's orders, for repeated rebellions to which
he had been instigated by a desire to revenge his
mother's murder, and by the ambition of her brother,
the Hindoo prince Man Sing, who wished to see his
own nephew upon the throne; and by his wife's
father, the prime minister of Akbar, Khan Azim. Noor
Jehan had invited the mother of Khosroo, the sister
of Rajah Man Sing, to look with her down a well in
the courtyard of her apartments by moonlight ; and
as she did so she threw her in. As soon as she saw
that she had ceased to struggle she gave the alarm,
and pretended that she had fallen in by accident.
By the murder of the mother of the heir apparent,
she expected to secure the throne to a creature of
her own. Khosroo was treated with great kindness
48 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
by his father, after he had been barbarously deprived
of his sight ; but when his brother, Shah Jehan, was
appointed to the government of southern India, he
pretended great solicitude about the comforts of his
poor blind brother, which he thought would not be
attended to at court, and took him with him to his
government in the Deccan, where he got him as-
sassinated, as the only sure mode of securing the
throne to himself. Purwez, the second son, died a
natural death, so also did his only son ; and so also
Daneeal, the fourth son of the Emperor. Noor
Jehan's daughter, by Shore Afgun, had married
Shahreear, a young son of the Emperor, by a con-
cubine ; and just before his death, he, at the instiga-
tion of Noor Jehan, named this son as his successor
in his will. He was placed upon the throne, and put
in possession of the treasury, and at the head of a
respectable army ; but the Empress' brother, Asuf,
designed the throne for his own son-in-law, Shah
Jehan ; and as soon as the Emperor died, he put up
as a puppet, to amuse the people till he could come
up with his army from the Deccan, Bolakee, the
eldest son of the deceased Khosroo. Shahreear's
troops were defeated; he was taken prisoner, and
had his eyes put out forthwith ; and the Empress
was put into close confinement. As Shah Jehan ap-
proached Lahore with his army, Asuf put his puppet,
Bolakee, and his younger brother, with the two
young sons of Daneeal, into prison, where they were
strangled by a messenger sent on for the purpose by
MONSIEUR THEVENOT. 49
Shah Jehan, under the sanction of Asuf. This
measure left no male heir alive of the house of
Tamerlane in Hindoostan, save Shah Jehan him-
self, and his four sons. Dara was then thirteen
years of age, Shoojah twelve, Ourungzebe ten, and
Moorad four ; and all were present, to learn from their
father this sad lesson, that such of them who might be
alive on his death, save one, must, with their sons,
be hunted down and destroyed like mad dogs, lest
they might get into the hands of the disaffected, and
be made the tools of faction. Monsieur de Thevenot,
who visited Agra, as I have before stated, in 1666,
says, " Some affirm that there are twenty-five thou-
sand christian families in Agra ; but all do not agree
in that. The Dutch have a factory in the town, but
the English have now none, because it did not turn
to account." The number must have been great, or
so sober a man as Monsieur Thevenot would not
have thought such an estimate w^orthy to be quoted
without contradiction. They were all, except those
connected with the single Dutch factory, maintained
from the salaries of office ; and they gradually disap-
peared as their offices became filled with Mahomedans
and Hindoos. The duties of the artillery, its arsenals,
and foundries, were the chief foundation upon which
the superstructure of Christianity then stood in India.
These duties were everywhere entrusted exclusively
to Europeans, and all Europeans were Christians, and
under Shah Jehan permitted freely to follow their
own modes of worship. They were, too, Roman
VOL. II. E
50 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Catholics, and spent the greater part of their in-
comes in the maintenance of priests. But they could
never forget that they were strangers in the land, and
held their offices upon a precarious tenure ; and, con-
sequently, they never felt disposed to expend the little
wealth they had in raising durable tombs, churches,
and other public buildings, to tell posterity who or
what they were. Present physical enjoyment, and
the prayers of their priests for a good berth in the
next world, were the only objects of their ambition.
Mahomedans and Hindoos soon learned to perform
duties which they saw bring to the Christians so
much of honour and emolument ; and as they did so,
they necessarily sapped the walls of the fabric.
Christianity never became independent of office in
India, and I am afraid never will : even under our
rule it still mainly rests upon that foundation.
51
CHAPTER V.
FATHER Gregory's notion of the impediments to con-
version IN INDIA INABILITY OF EUROPEANS TO SPEAK
EASTERN LANGUAGES.
Father Gregory, the Roman Catholic priest,
dined with us one evening, and Major Godby took
occasion to ask him at table, " What progress our re-
ligion was making among the people?"
" Progress !" said he ; " why what progress can we
ever hope to make among a people, who, the moment
we begin to talk to them about the miracles per-
formed by Christ, begin to tell us of those infinitely
more wonderful performed by Krishna, who lifted
a mountain upon his little finger, as an umbrella, to
defend his shepherdesses, at Gwerdham, from a
shower of rain."
The Hindoos never doubt any part of the miracles
and prophecies of our scripture — they believe every
word of them ; and the only thing that surprises them
is, that they should be so much less wonderfiil than
E 2
52 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
those of their own scriptures, in which also they impli-
citly believe. Men who believe that the histories of
the wars and amours of Ram and Krishna, two of the
incarnations of Vishnoo, were written some fifty
thousand years before these wars and amours actually
took place upon the earth, would of course easily be-
lieve in the fulfilment of any prophecy that might be
related to them out of any other book ; and, as to
miracles, there is absolutely nothing too extraordi-
nary for their belief. If a Christian of respectability
were to tell a Hindoo, that, to satisfy some scruples
of the Corinthians, St. Paul had brought the sun and
moon down upon the earth, and made them rebound
off again into their places, like tennis balls, without
the slightest injury to any of the three planets, I do
not think he would feel the slightest doubt of the truth
of it ; but he would immediately be put in mind of
something still more extraordinary that Krishna did
to amuse the milk-maids, or to satisfy some sceptics
of his day, and relate it with all the naivete ima-
ginable.
I saw at Agra, Mirza Kam Buksh, the eldest son
of Sooleeman Shekoh, the eldest son of the brother
of the present Emperor. He had spent a season with
us at Jubbulpore, while prosecuting his claim to an
estate against the Rajah of Rewah. The Emperor,
Shah Alum, in his flight before our troops from
Bengal, 1762, struck off the high road to Delhi, at
Mirzapore, and came down to Rewah, where he
found an asylum during the season of the rains with
WAYS AND MEANS OF AN EMPEROR. 53
the Rewah Rajah, who assigned for his residence the
village of Mukunpore. His wife, the empress, was
here delivered of a son, the present Emperor of Hin-
doostan, Akbar Shah ; and the Rajah assigned to
him and to his heirs for ever the fee simple of this
village. As the members of this family increased in
geometrical ratio, under the new system, which gave
them plenty to eat with nothing to do, the Emperor
had of late been obliged to hunt round for little ad-
ditions to his income ; and in his search he found
that the village of Mukunpore gave name to a per-
gunnah, or little district, of which it was the capital ;
and that a good deal of merchandize passed through
this district, and paid heavy duties to the Rajah.
" Nothing," he thought, " would be lost by trying to
get the whole district instead of the village ;" and for
this purpose he sent down Kam Buksh, the ablest
man of the whole family, to urge and prosecute his
claim ; but the Rajah was a close, shrewd man, and
not to be done out of his revenue, and Kam Buksh
was obliged to return minus some thousand rupees,
which he had spent in attempting to keep up ap-
pearances.
The best of us Europeans feel our deficiencies in
conversation with Mahomedans of high rank and
education, when we are called upon to talk upon
subjects beyond the every-day occurrences of life*
A Mahomedan gentleman of education is tolerably
well acquainted with astronomy as it was taught by
Ptolemy ; with the logic and ethics of Aristotle and
54 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Plato, with the works of Hippocrates and Galen,
through those of Avacenna, or as they call him,
Booalee Shena ; and he is very capable of talking
upon all subjects of philosophy, literature, science,
and the arts, and very much inclined to do so, and
of understanding the nature of the improvements
that have been made in them in modern times. But,
however capable we may feel of discussing these
subjects, or explaining these improvements in our
own language, we all feel ourselves very much at a
loss when we attempt to do it in theirs. Perhaps"
few Europeans have mixed and conversed more
freely with all classes than I have ; and yet 1 feel
myself sadly deficient when I enter, as I often do,
into discussions with Mahomedan gentlemen of edu-
cation, upon the subject of the character of the go-
vernments and institutions of different countries —
their effects upon the character and condition of the
people ; the arts and the sciences ; the faculties and
operations of the human mind ; and the thousand
other things which are subjects of every day con-
versation among educated and thinking men in our
own country. I feel that they could understand me
quite well if I could find words for my ideas ; but
these I cannot find, though their languages abound
in them ; nor have I ever met the European gentle-
man who could. East Indians can ; but they com-
monly want the ideas as much as we want the lan-
guage. The chief cause of this deficiency is the
want of sufficient intercourse with men in whose
EUROPEAN IGNORANCE. 55
presence we should be ashamed to appear ignorant —
this is the great secret, and all should know and ac-
knowledge it !
We are not ashamed to convey our orders to our
native servants in a barbarous language. Military
officers seldom speak to their Sepahees and native
officers about anything but arms, accoutrements, and
drill; or to other natives about anything but the
sports of the field ; and as long as they are under-
stood, they care not one straw in what language they
express themselves. The conversation of the civil
servants with their native officers takes sometimes a
wider range ; but they have the same philosophical
indifference as to the language in which they attempt
to convey their ideas ; and I have heard some of our
highest diplomatic characters talking, without the
slightest feeling of shame or embarrassment, to native
princes on the most ordinary subjects of every day's
interest, in a language which no human being but
themselves could understand. We shall remain the
same till some change of system inspire us with
stronger motives to please and conciliate the edu-
cated classes of the native community. They may
be reconciled, but they can never be charmed out of
their prejudices or the errors of their preconceived
opinions by such language as the European gentle-
men are now in the habit of speaking to them. We
must learn their language better, or we must teach
them our own, before we can venture to introduce
among them those free institutions which would
56
RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
oblige us to meet them on equal terms at the bar,
on the bench, and in the senate ! Perhaps two of
the best secular works that were ever written upon
the faculties and operations of the human mind, and
the duties of men in their relations with each other,
are those of Imamod Deen, Ghuzzalee, and Nuseerod
Deen, of Thons. Their idol was Plato, but their
works are of a more practical character than his, and
less dry than those of Aristotle.
I may here mention the following among many
instances that occur to me of the amusing mistakes
into which Europeans are liable to fall in their
conversation with natives.
Mr. J. W n, of the Bengal civil service, com-
monly known by the name of Bean W , was
the honourable Company's opium agent at Patna,
when I arrived at Dinapore, to join my regiment, in
1810. He had a splendid house, and lived in excel-
lent style ; and was never so happy as when he had
a dozen young men from the Dinapore cantonments
living with him. He complained that year, as I was
told, that he had not been able to save more than
one hundred thousand rupees that season out of his
salary and commission upon the opium, purchased by
the government from the cultivators. The members
of the civil service, in the other branches of public
service, were all anxious to have it believed by their
countrymen, that they were well acquainted with
their duties, and able and walling to perform them ;
but the honourable Company's commercial agents
ANECDOTE. 67
were, on the contrary, generally anxious to make
their countrymen believe that they neither knew nor
cared anything about their duties, because they were
ashamed of them. They were sinecure posts for the
drones of the service, or for those who had great in-
terest and no capacity. Had any young man made
it appear that he really thought W n knew or
cared anything about his duties, he would certainly
never have been invited to his house again ; and if
any one really knew, certainly no one seemed to know,
that he had any other duty than that of entertaining
his guests !
No man ever spoke the native language so badly,
because no man had ever so little intercourse with
the natives ; and it was, I have been told, to his
ignorance of the native languages, that his bosom
friend, Mr. P st, owed his life on one occasion.
W. sat by the sick bed of his friend with unwearied
attention, for some days and nights, after the doctors
had declared his case entirely hopeless. He proposed
at last to try change of air, and take him on the river
Ganges. The doctors, thinking that he might as
well die in his boat on the river, as in his house in
Calcutta, consented to his taking him on board.
They got up as far as Hoogly, when P. said that
he felt better, and thought he could eat something.
What should it be? A little roasted kid perhaps.
The very thing that he was longing for ! W. went
out upon the deck to give orders for the kid, that his
friend might not be disturbed by the gruff voice of
68 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the old " Khansama," (butler.) P. heard the con-
versation, however. " Khansama," said the Bean W.,
" you know that my friend Mr. P. is very ill?"
" Yes, sir."
" And that he has not eaten anything for a
month?"
" A long time for a man to fast, sir."
" Yes, Khansama, and his stomach is now become
very delicate, and could not stand anything strong."
" Certainly not, sir."
" Well, Khansama, then he has taken a fancy to
a roasted mare,'' (Murdwan,) meaning a Hulwan, or
kid.
" A roasted mare, sir !"
" Yes, Khansama, a roasted mare, which you must
have nicely prepared."
« What the whole, sir?"
" Not the whole at one time ; but have the whole
ready, as there is no knowing what part he may like
best."
The old butler had heard of the Tartars eating
their horses when in robust health, but the idea of a
sick man, not able to move in his bed without as-
sistance, taking a fancy to a roasted mare, quite
staggered him.
" But, sir, I may not be able to get such a thing
as a mare at so short a notice ; and if I get her she
will be very dear."
" Never mind, Khansama, get you the mare, cost
what she will ; if she costs a thousand rupees my
A ROASTED MARE. 59
friend shall have her ! He has taken a fancy to the
mare, and the mare he shall have, if she cost a thou-
sand rupees !"
The butler made his salaam, said he would do his
best, and took his leave, requesting that the boats
might be kept at the bank of the river till he came
back.
W. went into his sick friend, who, with great dif-
ficulty, managed to keep his countenance while he
complained of the liberties old servants were in the
habit of taking with their masters. " They think
themselves privileged," said W., " to conjure up dif-
ficulties in the way of everything that one wants to
have done."
" Yes," said P st, " we like to have old and
faithful servants about us, particularly when we are
sick ; but they are apt to take liberties, which new
ones will not."
In about two hours, the butler's approach was an-
nounced from the deck, and W. walked out to scold
him for his delay. The old gentleman was coming-
down over the bank, followed by about eight men
bearing the four quarters of an old 7nare. The
butler was very fat ; and the proud consciousness of
having done his duty, and met his master's wishes in
a very difficult and important point, had made him a
perfect FalstafF. He marshalled his men in front of
the cooking-boat, and then came towards his master,
who for some time stood amazed, and unable to
8
60 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
speak. At last he roared out — " And what the devil
have you here?"
" Why the mare that the sick gentleman took a
fancy for ; and dear enough she has cost me ; not a
farthing less than two hundred rupees would the
fellow take for his mare."
P st could contain himself no longer; he
burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, during
which the abscess in his liver burst into the intes-
tines, and he felt himself suddenly relieved, as if by
enchantment. The mistake was rectified — he got
his kid ; and in ten days he was taken back to Cal-
cutta a sound man, to the great astonishment of all
the doctors.
During the first campaign against Nepaul, in 1815,
Colonel, now Major-General 0. H., who commanded
the regiment, N. I. had to march with his regi-
ment through the town of Durbunga, the capital
of the Rajah, who came to pay his respects to
him. He brought a number of presents, but the
colonel, a high-minded, amiable man, never took
anything himself, nor suffered any person in his
camp to do so in the districts they passed through
without paying for it. He politely declined to take
anything of the presents ; but said, " that he had heard
that Durbunga produced crows, (Konwas,) and should
be glad to get some of them if the Rajah could spare
them" — meaning coffee or Quhooa.
The Rajah stared, and said, " that certainly they
BAGS OF CROWS. 61
had abundance of crows in Durbunga ; but he
thought they were equally abundant in all parts of
India."
'' Quite the contrary, Rajah Sahib, I assure you,"
said the colonel ; " there is not such a thing as a crow
to be found in any part of the Company's domi-
nions that I have seen, and I have been all over
them."
" Very strange," said the Rajah, turning round to
his followers.
" Yes," replied they, " it is very strange. Rajah
Sahib; but such is your Ikbal, (good fortune,)
and the blessings of your rule, that everything
thrives under it ; and if the colonel should wish to
have a few crows we could easily collect them for
him."
" If," said the colonel, greatly delighted, " you
could provide us with a few of these crows, we
should really feel very much obliged to you ; for
we have a long and cold campaign before us among
the bleak hills of Nepaul ; and we are all fond of
crows."
" Indeed," returned the Rajah; " I shall be happy to
send you as many as you wish." (Much and many is
expressed by the same term.)
" Then we should be glad to have two or three
bags full, if it would not be robbing you."
" Not in the least," said the Rajah ; " I will
go home and order them to be collected imme-
diately."
62 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
In the evening, as the officers, with the colonel at
their head, were sitting down to dinner, a man came
up to announce the arrival of the Rajah's present.
Three fine large bags were bought in, and the colonel
requested that one might be opened immediately.
It was opened accordingly, and the mess butler
(Khansama) drew out by the legs a fine old crow.
The colonel immediately saw the mistake, and
laughed as heartily as the rest at the result. A
polite message was sent to the Rajah, requesting
that he would excuse his having made it — for he had
had a dozen men out shooting crows all day with
their matchlocks. Few Europeans spoke the lan-
guage better than General , and I do not be-
lieve that one European in a thousand, at this mo-
ment, makes any difference, or knows any difference,
in the sound of the two terms.
Kam Buksh had one sister married to the King
of Oude, and another to Mirza Suleem, the younger
son of the Emperor. Mirza Suleem and his wife
could not agree, and a separation took place, and she
went to reside with her sister, the Queen of Oude.
The king saw her frequently ; and finding her more
beautiful than his wife, he demanded her also in
marriage from her father, who resided at Lucknow,
the capital of Oude, on a pension of five thousand
rupees a month from the King. He would not con-
sent, and demanded his daughter ; the King, finding
her willing to share his bed and board with her
sister, would not give her up. The father got his
INDIAN ROMANCE. 63
old friend, Colonel Gardiner, who had married a
Mahomedan woman of rank, to come down and
plead his cause. The king gave up the young
woman ; but at the same time stopped the father's
pension, and ordered him and all his family out of
his dominions. He set out with Colonel Gardiner
and his daughter, on his road to Delhi, through
Khassgunge, the residence of the colonel, who was
one day recommending the prince to seek consola-
tion for the loss of his pension in the proud recollec-
tion of having saved the honour of the house of
Tamerlane, when news was brought to them that
the daughter had run off from camp with his,
Colonel Gardiner's, son James, who had accompanied
him to Lucknow. The prince and the colonel
mounted their horses, and rode after him ; but they
were so much heavier and older than the young
ones, that they soon gave up the chase in despair.
Sooleeman Shekoh insisted upon the colonel imme-
diately fighting him, after the fashion of the Eng-
lish, with swords or pistols, but was soon persuaded
that the honour of the house of Tymour would be
much better preserved by allowing the offending
parties to marry.* The King of Oude was delighted
to find that the old man had been so punished ;
and the queen no less so to find herself so sud-
denly and unexpectedly relieved from all dread of
her sister's return. All parties wrote to my friend
* The coloners son has succeeded to his father's estates,
and he and his wife are, I heheve, very happy together.
64 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Kam Buksh, who was then at Jubbulpore ; and he
came off with their letters to me, to ask whether I
thought the incident might not be turned to account
in getting the pension for his father restored.
65
CHAPTER VI.
FUTTEHPORE SECREE THE EMPEROR AKBAR S PILGRIMAGE
BIRTH OF JEHANGEER.
On the 6th January we left Agra, which soon after
became the residence of the Governor of the north-
western provinces, Sir Charles Metcalfe. It was
when I was there the residence of a civil commis-
sioner, a judge, a magistrate, a collector of land
revenue, a collector of customs, and all their assist-
ants and establishments. A brigadier commands
the station, which contained a park of artillery, one
regiment of European, and four regiments of native
infantry. Near the artillery practice-ground, we
passed the tomb of Jodha Baee, the wife of the
Emperor Akbar and the mother of Jehangeer. She
was of Rajpoot caste, daughter of the Hindoo chief
of Joudhpore, a very beautiful, and it is said a very
amiable woman. The Mogul Emperors, though
Mahomedans, were then in the habit of taking their
wives from among the Rajpoot princes of the coun-
VOL. II. F
k
66
RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
try, with a view to secure their allegiance. The
tomb itself is in ruins, having only part of the dome
standing, and the walls and magnificent gateways
that at one time surrounded it have been all taken
away and sold by a thrifty government, or appro-
priated to purposes of more practical utility. I have
heard many Mahomedans say, that they could trace
the decline of their empire in Hindoostan to the
loss of the Rajpoot blood in the veins of their
princes. Better blood than that of the Rajpoots of
India certainly never flowed in the veins of any
human beings ; or, what is the same thing, no blood
was ever believed to be finer by the people them-
selves and those they had to deal with. The differ-
ence is all in the imagination ; and the imagination
is all powerful with nations as with individuals. The
Britons thought their blood the finest in the world
till they were conquered by the Romans, the Picts,
the Scots, and the Saxons. The Saxons thought
theirs the finest in the world till they were con-
quered by the Danes and the Normans. This is the
history of the human race. The quality of the blood
of a whole people has depended often upon the fate
of a battle, which in the ancient world doomed the
vanquished to the hammer ; and the hammer changed
the blood of those sold by it from generation to
generation. How many Norman robbers got their
blood ennobled, and how many Saxon nobles got
theirs plebeianised by the battle of Hastings ; and
how difficult would it be for any of us to say from
VIRTUE OF BLOOD. 67
which we descended, the Britons or the Saxons — the
Danes or the Normans ; or in what particular action
our ancestors were the victors or the vanquished,
and became ennobled or plebeianised by the thousand
accidents which influence the fate of battles ! A
series of successful aggressions upon their neigh-
bours will commonly give a nation a notion that they
are superior in courage ; and pride will make them
attribute this superiority to blood — that is, to an
old date. This was perhaps never more exemplified
than in the case of the Gorkhas of Nepaiil, a small
diminutive race of men, not much unlike the Huns,
but certainly as brave as any men can possibly be.
A Gorkha thought himself equal to any four other
men of the hills, though they were all much stronger ;
just as a Dane thought himself equal to four Saxons
at one time in Britain. The other men of the hills
began to think that he really was so, and could
not stand before him.
We passed many wells from which the people
were watering their fields ; and found those which
yielded a brackish water were considered to be much
more valuable for irrigation than those which
yielded sweet water. It is the same in the valley
of the Nerbudda ; but brackish water does not suit
some soils and some crops. On the 8th, we reached
Futtehpore Secree, which lies about twenty-four
miles from Agra, and stands upon the back of a
narrow ridge of sandstone hills, rising abruptly
from the alluvial plains, to the highest about one
F 2
68 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
hundred and fifty feet ; and extends three miles north-
north-east, and south-south-west. This place owes
its celebrity to a Mahomedan saint, the Sheikh
Saleem of Cheest, a town in Persia, who owed his
to the following circumstance. The Emperor
Akbar's sons had all died in infancy, and he made a
pilgrimage to the shrine of the celebrated Moin-od-
deen of Cheest, at Ajmere. He and his family went
all the way on foot at the rate of three koss or four
miles a day, a distance of about three hundred and
fifty miles. Kannats, or cloth walls, were raised on
each side of the road, carpets spread over it, and high
towers of burnt bricks erected at every stage, to
mark the places where he rested. On reaching the
shrine, he made a supplication to the saint, who at
night appeared to him in Ms sleep, and recommended
him to go and entreat the intercession of a very
holy old man, who lived a secluded life upon the top
of the little range of hills at Secree. He went
accordingly, and was assured by the old man, then
ninety-six years of age, that the Empress, Jodha
Baee, the daughter of a Hindoo prince, would be
delivered of a son, who would live to a good old age.
She was then pregnant, and remained in the vicinity
of the old man's hermitage till her confinement,
which took place 31st of August, 1569. The infant
was called after the hermit, Mirza Saleem ; and be-
came in time Emperor of Hindoostan, under the
name of Jehangeer. It was to this Emperor, Jehan-
geer, that Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador, was
FUTTEHPORE SECREE. 69
sent from the English court. Akbar, in order to
secure to himself, his family, and his people, the ad-
vantage of the continued intercessions of so holy a
man, took up his residence at Secree, and covered
the hill with magnificent buildings for himself, his
courtiers, and his public establishments.
The quadrangle which contains the mosque on the
west side, and tomb of the old hermit in the centre,
was completed in the year 1578, six years before his
death ; and is perhaps one of the finest in the world.
It is five hundred and seventy-five feet square, and
surrounded by a high wall, with a magnificent cloister
all around within. On the outside, is a magnificent
gateway, at the top of a noble flight of steps twenty-
four feet high. The whole gateway is one hundred
and twenty feet in height, and the same in breadth,
and presents beyond the wall fi\e sides of an octagon,
of which the front face is eighty feet wide. The
arch in the centre of this space is sixty feet high by
forty wide. This gateway is no doubt extremely
grand and beautiful ; but what strikes one most is,
the disproportion between the thing wanted and the
thing provided — there seems to be something quite
preposterous in forming so enormous an entrance for
a poor diminutive man to walk through, and walk he
must unless he is carried through on men's shoulders ;
for neither elephant, horse, nor bullock could ascend
over the flight of steps. In all these places the stair-
cases, on the contrary, are as disproportionately
small ; they look as if they were made for rats to
70 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
crawl through, while the gateways seem as if they
were made for ships to sail under ! One of the most
interesting sights, was the immense swarms of swal-
lows flying round the thick bed of nests that occupy
the apex of this arch; and to the spectators below,
they look precisely like a swarm of bees round a large
honeycomb. I quoted a passage in the Koran in
praise of the swallows, and asked the guardians of
the place, whether they did not think themselves
happy in having such swarms of sacred birds over
their heads all day long ? " Not at all," said they ;
" they oblige us to sweep the gateway ten times a
day, but there is no getting at their nests, or we
should soon get rid of them." They then told me that
the sacred bird of the Koran was the abadeel or
large black swallow, and not the purtadeel, a little
piebald thing of no religious merit whatever.* On
the right side of the entrance is engraven on stone
in large letters standing out in bas relief, the follow-
ing passage in Arabic : " Jesus, on whom be peace,
has said, the world is merely a bridge ; you are to
pass over it, and not to build your dwellings upon it."
Where this saying of Christ is to be found, I know
not ; nor has any Mahomedan yet been able to tell
* See the 105th chapter of the Koran. " Hast thou not
seen how thy Lord dealt with the masters of the elephant ? Did
he not make their treacherous designs an occasion of drawing
them into error ; and send against them flocks of swallows which
cast down upon them stones of baked clay, and rendered them
like the leaves of corn eaten by cattle ?"
hermit's tomb. 71
me ; but the quoting of such a passage, in such a
place, is a proof of the absence of all bigotry on the
part of Akbar.
The tomb of Sheikh Saleem, the hermit, is a very
beautiful little building, in the centre of the qua-
drangle. The man who guards it told me, that the
Jats, while they reigned, robbed this tomb as well
as those at Agra, of some of the most beautiful and
valuable portion of the mosaic work. " But," said
he, " they were well plundered in their turn by your
troops at Bhurtpore ! retribution always follows the
wicked sooner or later." * He showed us the little
roof of stone tiles, close to the original little dingy
mosque of the old hermit, where the Empress gave
birth to Jehangeer ; and told us, that she was a very
sensible woman, whose councils had great weight
with the Emperor .f " His majesty's only fault was,"
* We besieged and took Bhurtpore in order to rescue the
young prince, our ally, from his uncle, who had forcibly assumed
the office of prime minister to his nephew. As soon as we got
possession, all the property we found belonging either to the
nephew or the uncle, was declared to be prize money, and taken for
the troops. The young prince was obliged to borrow an elephant
from the prize agents to ride upon. He has ever since enjoyed
the whole of the revenue of his large territory.
t The people of India, no doubt, owed much of the good they
enjoyed under the long reign of Akbar, to this most excellent
woman, who inspired not only her husband but the most able
Mahomedan minister that India has ever had, with feelings of
universal benevolence. It was from her that this great minister,
Abul Fuzul, derived the spirit that dictated the following passages
in his admirable work, the Aeen Akberee : " Every sect becomes
72 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
he said, " an inclination to learn the art of magic,
which was taught him by an old Hindoo religious
mendicant," whose apartment near the palace he
pointed out to us.
"Fortunately," said our cicerone, "the fellow
infatuated with its particular doctrines ; animosity and dissension
prevail, and each man deeming the tenets of his sect to be the
dictates of truth itself, aims at the destruction of all others, vili-
fies reputation, stains the earth with blood, aud has the vanity to
imagine that he is performing meritorious actions. Were the
voice of reason attended to, mankind would be sensible of their
error, and lament the weaknesses which led them to interfere in
the religious concerns of each other. Persecution after all defeats
its own end ; it obliges men to conceal their opinions, but pro-
duces no change in them.
" Summarily, the Hindoos are religious, affable, courteous to
strangers, prone to inflict austerities on themselves, lovers of jus-
tice, given to retirement, able in business, grateful, admirers of
truth, and of unbounded fidelity in all their dealings. This
character shines brightest in adversity. Their soldiers know not
what it is to fly from the field of battle : when the success of the
combat becomes doubtful, they dismount from their horses, and
throw away their lives in payment of the debt of valour. They
have great respect for their tutors ; and make no account of their
lives when they can devote them to the service of their God.
" They consider the Supreme Being to be above all labour, and
believe Brahmah to be the creator of the world, Vishnu its pre-
server, and Sewa its destroyer. But one sect believes that God,
who hath no equal, appeared on earth under the three above-
mentioned forms, without having been thereby polluted in the
smallest degree, in the same manner as the Christians speak of
the Messiah ; others hold that all these were only human beings,
who, on account of their sanctity and righteousness, were raised
to these high dignities."
SHEIKH SALEEM. 73
died before the Emperor had learnt enough to practise
the art without his aid."
Sheikh Saleem had, he declared, gone more than
twenty times on pilgrimage to the tomb of the holy
prophet ; and was not much pleased to have his re-
pose so much disturbed by all the noise and bustle of
the imperial court. At last, Akbar wanted to sur-
round the hill by regular fortifications ; and the
Sheikh could stand it no longer. " Either you or I
must leave this hill," said he to the Emperor ; " if the
efficacy of my prayers is no longer to be relied upon
let me depart in peace !" " If it be your majesty's
will," replied the Emperor, " that one should go, let
it be your slave, I pray !" The old story : — there is
nothing like relying upon the efficacy of our prayers,
say the priests — nothing like relying upon that of
our sharp swords, say the soldiers ; and as nations
advance from barbarism, they generally contrive to
divide between them the surplus produce of the land
and labour of society. The old hermit consented to re-
main, and pointed out Agra as a place which he
thought would answer the Emperor's purpose ex-
tremely well ! Agra, then an unpeopled waste, soon
became a city, and Futtehpore Secree was deserted.
Cities which, like this, are maintained by the public
establishments that attend and surround the courts
of sovereign princes, must always, like this, become
deserted when these sovereigns change their resting-
places. To the history of the rise and progress,
decline and fall, of how many cities is this the key ?
74 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Close to the tomb of the saint, is another con-
taining the remains of a great number of his descend-
ants, who continue to enjoy, under the successors
of Akbar, large grants of rent-free lands for their own
support, and for that of the mosque and mausoleum.
These grants have by degrees been nearly all re-
sumed ; and as the repair of the buildings is now
entrusted to the public officers of our government,
the surviving members of the saint's family, who
still reside among the ruins, are extremely poor.
What strikes an European most in going over these
palaces of the Mogul Emperors is, the want of what
a gentleman of fortune in his own country would
consider elegantly comfortable accommodations. Five
hundred pounds a year would at the present day
secure him more of this in any civilized country of
Europe or America, than the greatest of those Em-
perors could command. He would perhaps have the
same impression in going over the domestic archi-
tecture of the most civilized nations of the ancient
world, Persia and Egypt, Greece and Rome.
75
CHAPTER VII.
BHURTPORE — DEEG WANT OF EMPLOYMENT FOR THE MILI-
TARY AND THE EDUCATED CLASSES UNDER THE COM-
PANY'S RULE.
Our old friends, Mr. Charles Fraser, the commis-
sioner of the Agra division, then on his circuit, and
Major Godby, had come on with us from Agra, and
made our party very agreeable. On the 9th, we
went fourteen miles to Bhurtpore, over a plain of
alluvial but seemingly poor soil, intersected by one
low range of sandstone hills running north-east and
south-west. The thick belt of jungle, three miles
wide, with which the chiefs of Bhurtpore used
to surround their fortress while they were free-
booters, and always liable to be brought into collision
with their neighbours, has been fast diminishing
since the capture of the place by our troops in 1826 ;
and will very soon disappear altogether, and give
place to rich sheets of cultivation, and happy little
village communities. Our tents had been pitched
6
76 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
close outside the Mutra gate, near a small grove of
fruit trees, which formed the left flank of the
last attack on this fortress by Lord Combermere.
Major Godby had been present during the whole
siege ; and as we went round the place in the evening
on our elephants, he pointed out all the points of
attack, and told all the anecdotes of the day that
were interesting enough to be remembered for ten
years. We went through the town, out at the oppo-
site gate, and passed along the line of Lord Lake's
attack in 1804. All the points of his attack were
also pointed out to us by our cicerone, an old officer
in the service of the Rajah. It happened to be the
anniversary of the first attempt to storm, which was
made on the 9th of January, thirty-one years before.
One old officer told us that he remembered Lord
Lake sitting with three other gentlemen on chairs
not more than half a mile from the ramparts of the
fort.
The old man thought that the men of those days
were quite a different sort of thing to the men of
the present day, as well those who defended, as
those who attacked the fort ; and if the truth must
be told, he thought that the European lords and
gentlemen had fallen off* in the same scale as the
rest. " But," said the old man, " all these things are
matter of destiny and providence. Upon that very
bastion, (pointing to the right point of Lord Lake's
attack,) stood a large twenty-four pounder, which
was loaded and discharged three times by super-
UNTA GOORGOORS. 77
natural agency during one of your attacks — not a
living soul was near it." We all smiled incredulous ;
and the old man offered to bring a score of wit-
nesses to the fact, men of unquestionable veracity !
The left point of Lord Lake's attack was the Buldeo
bastion, so called after Buldeo Sing, the second son
of the then reigning chief, Runjeet Sing. He suc-
ceeded his father, and left the government to his
adopted son, the present young chief, Bulwunt Sing.
The feats which Hector performed in the defence of
Troy sink into utter insignificance before those which
Buldeo performed in the defence of Bhurtpore,
according to the best testimony of the survivors of
that great day. " But," said the old man, " he was,
of course, acting under supernatural influence ; he
condescended to measure swords only with Euro-
peans ;" and their bodies filled the whole bastion in
which he stood, according to the belief of the
people, though no European entered it, I believe,
during the whole siege. They pointed out to us
where the different corps were posted. There was
one corps which had signalized itself a good deal,
but of which I had never before heard, though all
around me seemed extremely well acquainted with
it — this was the " U^ita Goorgoors^ At last Godby
came to my side, and told me this was the name by
which the Bombay troops were always known in
Bengal, though no one seemed to know whence it
came. I am disposed to think that they derive it
from the peculiar form of the caps of their sipahees,
78 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
which are in form like the common hookah, called a
goorgooree, with a small ball at the top, like an
unta, or tennis, or billiard ball : hence " Unta Goor-
goors." The Bombay sipahees were, I am told,
always very angry when they heard that they were
known by this term — they have always behaved like
good soldiers, and need not be ashamed of this or
any other name.
The water in the lake, about a mile to the west
of Bhurtpore, stands higher than the ground about
the fortress ; and a drain had been opened through
which the water rushed in and filled the ditch all
round the fort and great part of the plain to the
south and east, before Lord Lake undertook the
siege in 1 804. This water might, I believe, have
been taken off to the eastward into the Jumna, had
the outlet been discovered by the engineers. An
attempt was made to cut the same drain on the
approach of Lord Combermere in 1826 ; but a party
went on, and stopped the work before much water
had passed, and the ditch was almost dry when the
siege began.
The walls being all of mud and now dismantled,
had a wretched appearance ; and the town, which is
contained within them, is, though very populous,
a mere collection of wretched hovels : the only re-
spectable habitation within is the palace, which con-
sists of three detached buildings, one for the chief,
another for the females of his family, and the third
for his court of justice. I could not find a single
MERIT OF FAITH. 79
trace of the European officers who had been killed
here, either at the first or second siege, though I had
been told that a small tomb had been built in a
neighbouring grove over the remains of Brigadier-
General Edwards, who fell in the last storm. It is,
I believe, the only one that has ever been raised.
The scenes of battles fought by the Mahomedan
conquerors of India, were commonly crowded with
magnificent tombs built over the slain, and provided
for a time with the means of maintaining holy men
who read the Koran over their graves. Not that
this duty was necessary for the repose of their souls,
for every Mahomedan killed in fighting against men
who believed not in his prophet, no matter what the
cause of quarrel, went, as a matter of course, to
paradise ; and every unbeliever, killed in the same
action, went as surely to hell ! There are only a
few hundred men, exclusive of the prophets, who,
according to Mahomed, have the first place in para-
dise— those who shared in one or other of his first
three battles, and believed in his holy mission before
they had the evidence of a single victory over the
unbelievers to support it. At the head of these are
the men who accompanied him in his flight from
Mecca to Medina, when he had no evidence either
from victories or miracles. In all such matters, the
less the evidence adduced in proof of a mission the
greater the merit of those who believe in it, accord-
ing to the person who pretends to it ; and unhappily,
the less the evidence a man has for his faith, the
80 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
greater is his anger against other men for not joining
in it with him. No man gets very angry with
another for not joining with him in his faith in the
demonstration of a problem in mathematics. Man
likes to think that he is on the way to heaven upon
such easy terms ; but gets angry at the notion that
others won't join him, because they may consider him
an imbecile for thinking that he is so. The Maho-
medan generals and historians are sometimes almost
as concise as Caesar himself in describing very con-
scientiously a battle of this kind ; instead of I came,
I saw, I conquered — it is, " ten thousand Mussul-
mans on that day tasted of the blessed fruit of para-
dise, after sending fifty thousand unbelievers to the
flames of hell !"
On the 10th, we came on twelve miles to Koom-
beer, over a plain of poor soil, much impregnated
with salt, and with some works in which salt is made,
with solar evaporation. The earth is dug up — water
filtered through it, and drawn off into small square
beds, where it is evaporated by exposure to the solar
heat. The gate of this fort leading out to the road
we came is called, modestly enough, after Koombeer,
a place only ten miles distant ; that leading to
Mutra, three or four stages distant, is called the
Mutra gate. At Delhi, the gates of the city wall
are called ostentatiously after distant places: the
Cashmere^ the Cabool, the Constantinople gates. Out-
side the Koombeer gate, I saw for the first time in
my life, the well peculiar to upper India. It is
JATS OF BHURTPORE. 81
built up in the form of a round tower or cylindrical
shell, of burnt bricks, well cemented with good
mortar, and covered inside and out with good stucco
work ; and let down by degrees, as the earth is re-
moved by men at work in digging under the light
earthy or sandy foundation inside and out. This
well is about twenty feet below and twenty feet
above the surface, and had to be built higher as it
was let into the ground.
On the 11th, we came on twelve miles to Deeg,
over a plain of poor and badly cultivated soil, which
must be almost all under water in the rains. This
was and still is the country seat of the Jats of Bhurt-
pore, who rose, as I have already stated, to wealth and
power by aggressions upon their immediate neigh-
bours, and the plunder of tribute on its way to the
imperial capital, and of the baggage of passing armies
during the contests for dominion that followed the
death of the Emperors, and during the decline and
fall of the empire. The Jats found the morasses
with which they were surrounded here a source of
strength. They emigrated from the banks of the Indus
about Moultan, and took up their abode by degrees
on the banks of the Jumna, and those of the Chum-
bul, from their confluence upwards ; w^here they be-
came cultivators and robbers upon a small scale, till
they had the means to build garrisons, when they
entered the lists with princes, who were only robbers
upon a large scale. The Jats, like the Mahrattas,
rose by a feeling of nationality among a people
VOL. II. G
82 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
who had none. Single landholders were every day
rising to principalities by means of their gangs of
robbers ; but they could seldom be cemented under
one common head by a bond of national feeling.
They have a noble quadrangular garden at Deeg,
surrounded by a high wall. In the centre of each
of the four faces is one of the most beautiful Hindoo
buildings for accommodation that I have ever seen,
formed of a very fine grained sandstone brought from
the quarries of Roopbas, which lie between thirty
and forty miles to the south, and eight or ten miles
south-west of Futtehpore Secree. These stones are
brought in, in flags some sixteen feet long, from two
to three feet wide and one thick, with sides as flat
as glass, the flags being of the natural thickness of
the strata. The garden is four hundred and seventy-
five feet long, by three hundred and fifty feet wide ;
and in the centre is an octagonal pond, with openings
on four sides leading up to the four buildings, each
opening having from the centre of the pond to the
foot of the flight of steps leading into them, an avenue
of jets d'eau.
Deeg as much surpassed, as Bhurtpore fell short
of my expectations. I had seen nothing in India of
architectural beauty to be compared with the build-
ings in this garden, except at Agra. The useful and
the elegant are here everywhere happily blended ;
nothing seems disproportionate, or unsuitable to
the purpose for which it was designed ; and all that
one regrets is, that so beautiful a garden should be
STANDING ARMY. 83
situated in so vile a swamp ! There was a general
complaint among the people of the town of a want of
rozgar, (employment,) and its fruit subsistence : the
taking of Bhurtpore had, they said, produced a sad
change among them for the worse. Godby observed
to some of the respectable men about us, w^ho com-
plained of this, " that happily their chief had now no
enemy to employ them against." " But what," said
they, "is a prince without an army? and why do
you keep up yours now that all your enemies have
been subdued ?" " We want them," replied Godby,
"to prevent our friends from cutting each other's
throats, and to defend them all against a foreign ene-
my !" " True," said they, " but what are we to do who
have nothing but our swords to depend upon, now
that our chief no longer wants us, and you won't
take us ?" " And what," said some shopkeepers,
" are we to do who provided these troops with clothes,
food, and furniture, which they can no longer afford to
pay for ? Com'pany ka umul men hooch rozgar nuheen.
Under the Company's dominion there is no employ-
ment." This is too true ; we do the soldier's work
with one-tenth of the soldiers that had before
been employed in it over the territories we acquire,
and turn the other nine-tenths adrift. They all sink
into the lowest class of religious mendicants, or
retainers ; or live among their friends as drones upon
the land ; while the manufacturing, trading, and com-
mercial industry that provided them with the com-
forts, conveniences, and elegances of life while they
G 2
84 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
were in a higher grade of service, is in its turn
thrown out of employment ; and the whole frame of
society becomes, for a time, deranged by the local
diminution in the demand for the services of men and
the produce of their industry. I say we do the sol-
diers' work with one-tenth of the numbers that were
formerly required for it. I will mention an anecdote
to illustrate this. In the year 1816, I was march-
ing with my regiment from the Nepaul frontier, after
the war, to Allahabad. We encamped about four
miles from a mud fort, in the kingdom of Oude, and
heard the guns of the Amil, or chief of the district,
playing all day upon this fort, from which his bat-
teries were removed at least two miles. He had
three regiments of infantry, a corps or two of cavalry,
and a good park of artillery ; while the garrison con-
sisted of only about two hundred stout Rajpoot
landholders and cultivators, or yeomen. In the eve-
ning, just as we had sat down to dinner, a messenger
came to the commanding officer. Colonel Gregory,
who was a member of the mess, from the said Amil,
and begged permission to deliver his message in
private. I, as the senior staff officer, was requested
to hear what he had to say.
" What do you require from the commanding
officer?"
" I require the loan of the regiment."
" I know the commanding officer will not let you
have the regiment."
" If the Amil cannot get more, he will be glad to
LOAN OF A DRUMMER. 86
get two companies ; and I have brought with me
this bag of gold, containing some two or three hun-
dred gold mohurs."
I delivered the message to Colonel Gregory, be-
fore all the officers, who desired me to say that he
could not spare a single man, as he had no authority
to assist the Amil, and was merely marching through
the country to his destination. I did so. The man
urged me to beg the commanding officer, if he could
do no more, merely to halt the next day where he
was, and lend the Amil the use of one of his drum-
mers !
" And what will you do with him ?"
" Why, just before daylight, we will take him down
near one of the gates of the fort, and make him beat
his drum as hard as he can ; and the people within,
thinking the whole regiment is upon them, will make
out as fast as possible at the opposite gate."
" And the bag of gold, what is to become of that T
" You and the old gentleman can divide it be-
tween you, and I will double it for you if you like."
I delivered the message before all the officers to
their great amusement ; and the poor man was
obliged to carry back his bag of gold to the Amil.
The Amil is the collector of the revenues in Oude,
and he is armed with all the powers of government ;
and has generally several regiments and a train of
artillery with him. The large landholders build
these mud forts, which they defend by their Rajpoot
cultivators, who are among the bi-avest men in the
86 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
world. One hundred of them would never hesitate
to attack a thousand of the king's regular troops,
because they know the Amil would be ashamed to
have any noise made about it at court ; but they know
also, that if they were to beat one hundred of the
Company's troops, they would soon have a thousand
upon them ; and if they were to beat one thousand,
that they would soon have ten. They provide for the
maintenance of those who are wounded in their
flight, and for the widows and orphans of those who
are killed. Their prince provides for neither, and
his soldiers are in consequence somewhat chary of
fighting. It is from this peasantry, the military cul-
tivators of Oude, that our Bengal native infantry
draws three out of four of its recruits, and finer
young men for soldiers can hardly anywhere be
found.
The advantage which arises to society from doing
the soldiers' duty with a small number, has never been
sufficiently appreciated in India ; but it will become
every day more and more manifest, as our dominion
becomes more and more stable — for men who have
lived by the sword do not in India like to live by
anything else, or to see their children anything but
soldiers. Under the former governments, men
brought their own arms and horses to the service,
and took them away with them again when dis-
charged. The supply always greatly exceeded the
demand for soldiers both in the cavalry and the
infantry, and a very great portion of the men armed
MILITARY ROBBERS. 87
and accoutred as soldiers, were always without ser-
vice, roaming over the country in search of it. To
such men, the profession next in rank after that of
the soldier robbing in the service of the sovereign,
was that of the robber plundering on his own account.
" Materia munificentise per bella et raptus. Ne arare
terram, aut expectare annum tam facile persuaseris,
quam vocare hostes et vulnera mereri : pigrum qui-
nimo et iners videtur sudore adquinere, quod possis
sanguine parare." " War and rapine supply the prince
with the means of his munificence. You cannot
persuade the German to cultivate the fields and
wait patiently for the harvest, so easily as you can to
challenge the enemy and expose himself to honour-
able wounds. They hold it to be base and dis-
honourable to earn by the sweat of their brow what
they might acquire by their blood."
The equestrian robber had his horse, and was
called "Ghurasee," horse-robber, a term which he
never thought disgraceful. The foot-robber under
the native government stood in the same relation to
the horse-robber as the foot soldier to the horse
soldier, because the trooper furnished his own horses,
arms and accoutrements, and considered himself a
man of rank and wealth compared with the foot
soldier : both however had the wherewithal to rob
the traveller on the highway; and in the inter-
vals between wars, the high roads were covered with
them. There was a time in England, it is said, when
the supply of clergymen was so great compared with
88 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the demand for them, from the undue stimulus given
to clerical education, that it was not thought dis-
graceful for them to take to robbing on the highway ;
and all the high roads were in consequence infested
by them. How much more likely is a soldier to
consider himself justified in this pursuit, and to be
held so by the feelings of the society in general,
when he seeks in vain for regular service under his
sovereign and his viceroys.
The individual soldiers not only armed, accoutred,
and mounted themselves, but they generally ranged
themselves under leaders, and formed well-organized
bands ready for any purpose of war or plunder. They
followed the fortunes of such leaders whether in
service or out of it ; and when dismissed from that
of their sovereign, they assisted them in robbing on
the highway, or in pillaging the country till the
sovereign was constrained to take them back, or give
them estates in rent-free tenure for their mainte-
nance and that of their followers.
All this is reversed under our government. We
do the soldiers' work much better than it was ever
before done with one-tenth— nay, I may say, one-
fiftieth part of the numbers that were employed to
do it by our predecessors ; and the whole number of
the soldiers employed by us is not equal to that of
those who were under them actually in the transition
state, or on their way from the place where they had
lost service, to that where they hoped to find it ;
extorting the means of subsistence either by intimi-
ENGLISH MILITARY SYSTEM. 89
dation or by open violence. Those who are in this
transition state under us, are neither armed, accoutred
nor mounted ; we do not disband en masse, we only
dismiss individuals for offences, and they have no
leaders to range themselves under. Those who
come to seek our service are the sons of yeomen,
bred up from their infancy with all those feelings of
deference for superiors which we require in soldiers.
They have neither arms, horses, nor accoutrements ;
and when they leave us permanently or temporarily,
they take none with them — they never rob or steal
— they will often dispute with the shopkeepers on
the road about the price of provisions, or get a man
to carry their bundles gratis for a few miles, but
this is the utmost of their transgressions, and for
these things they are often severely handled by our
police.
It is extremely gratifying to an Englishman to
hear the general testimony borne by all classes of
people to the merits of our rule in this respect ; they
all say that no former government ever devoted so
much attention to the formation of good roads and to
the protection of those who travel on them ; and
much of the security arises from the change I have
here remarked in the character and number of our
military establishments. It is equally gratifying to
reflect that the advantages must go on increasing,
as those who have been thrown out of employment
in the army, find other occupations for themselves
and their children ; for find them they must or turn
90 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
mendicants, if India should be blessed with a long
interval of peace. All soldiers under us who have
served the government faithfully for a certain num-
ber of years, are, when no longer fit for the active
duties of their profession, sent back with the means
of subsistence in honourable retirement for the rest
of their lives among their families and friends, where
they form, as it were, fountains of good feeling
towards the government they have served. Under
former governments, a trooper was discharged as
soon as his horse got disabled, and a foot soldier as
soon as he got disabled himself, no matter how —
whether in the service of the prince or otherwise ;
no matter how long they had served, whether they
were still fit for any other service or not. Like the
old soldier in Gil Bias, they turned robbers on the
highway, where they could still present a spear or a
matchlock at a traveller, though no longer deemed
worthy to serve in our ranks of the army. Nothing
tended so much to the civilization of Europe as the
substitution of standing armies for militia ; and no-
thing has tended so much to the improvement of
India under our rule. The troops to which our
standing armies in India succeeded, were much the
same in character as those licentious bodies to which
the standing armies of the different nations of Europe
succeeded ; and the result has been, and will, I hope,
continue to be the same, highly beneficial to the
great mass of the people.
By a statute of Elizabeth it was made a capital
MENDICANT SOLDIERS. 91
offence, felony without benefit of clergy, for soldiers
or sailors to beg on the high roads without a pass ;
and I suppose this statute arose from their frequently
robbing on the highways in the character of beg-
gars. There must at that time have been an im-
mense number of soldiers in the transition state in
England ; men who disdained the labours of peace-
ful life, or had by long habit become unfitted for
them. Religious mendicity has hitherto been the
great safety valve through which the unquiet transi-
tion spirit has found vent under our strong and
settled government. A Hindoo of any caste may
become a religious mendicant of the two great
monastic orders of Gosaens, who are disciples of
Sewa, and Byragies, who are disciples of Vishnoo ;
and any Maliomedan may become a Fakeer — and
Gosaens, Byragies, and Fakeers, can always secure
or extort food from the communities they visit.
Still, however, there is enough of this unquiet
transition spirit left to give anxiety to a settled
government ; for the moment insurrection breaks
out at any point, from whatever cause, to that
point thousands are found flocking from north,
east, west, and south, with their arms and their
horses, if they happen to have any, in the hope of
finding service either under the local authorities or
the insurgents themselves; as the troubled winds
of heaven rush to the point where the pressure of
the atmosphere has been diminished.
92
CHAPTER VIII.
GOVERDHUN, THE SCENE OF KRISHNA S DALLIANCE WITH
THE MILK-MAIDS.
On the 10th, we came on ten miles over a plain
to Goverdhun, a place celebrated in ancient history
as the birth-place of Krishna, the seventh incar-
nation of the Hindoo god of preservation, Vishnoo,
and the scene of his dalliance with the milk-maids,
(gofrees ;) and in modern days, as the burial or burn-
ing place of the Jat chiefs of Bhurtpore and Deeg,
by whose tombs, with their endowments, this once
favourite abode of the god is prevented from being
entirely deserted. The town stands upon a narrow
ridge of sandstone hills, about ten miles long, rising
suddenly out of the alluvial plain, and running north,
east, and south-west. The population is now very
small and composed chiefly of Brahmans, who are
supported by the endowments of these tombs, and
the contributions of a few pilgrims. All our Hindoo
followers were much gratified, as we happened to
THE MONKEY GENERAL. 93
arrive on a day of peculiar sanctity ; and they were
enabled to bathe and perform their devotions to the
different shrines with the prospect of great advan-
tage. This range of hills is believed by Hindoos, to
be part of a fragment of the Himmalah mountains
which Hunnooman, the monkey general of Ram, the
sixth incarnation of Vishnoo, was taking down to
aid his master in the formation of his bridge from
the continent to the island of Ceylon, when en-
gaged in the war with the demon king of that island
for the recovery of his wife Seeta. He made a
false step by some accident in passing Goverdhun,
and this small bit of his load fell off. The rocks
begged either to be taken on to the god Ram, or
back to their old place ; but Hunnooman was hard
pressed for time, and told them not to be uneasy, as
they would have a comfortable resting place, and be
worshipped by millions in future ages — thus, ac-
cording to popular belief, foretelling that it would
become the residence of a future incarnation, and
the scene of Krishna's miracles. The range was
then about twenty miles long, ten having since dis-
appeared under the ground. It was of full length
during Krishna's days ; and on one occasion he took
up the whole upon his little finger, to defend his
favourite town and its milk-maids from the wrath of
Judar, who got angry with the people, and poured
down upon them a shower of burning ashes !
As I rode along this range, which rises gently
from the plains at both ends and abruptly from the
94 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
sides, with my groom by my side, I asked him what
made Hunnooman drop all his burthen here?
" All his burthen !" exclaimed he with a smile ;
" had it been all would it not have been an immense
mountain, with all its towns and villages ; while this
is but an insignificant belt of rock ! A mountain
upon the back of the men of former days, sir, was no
more than a bundle of grass upon the back of one of
your grass-cutters in the present day."
Nuthoo, whose mind had been full of the wonders
of this place, from his infancy, happened to be with
us, and he now chimed in.
" It was night when Hunnooman passed this
place ; and the lamps were seen burning in a hun-
dred towns upon the mountain he had upon his back
— the people were all at their usual occupations,
quite undisturbed ; this is a mere fragment of his
great burthen !"
" And how was it that the men of those towns
should have been so much smaller than the men who
carried them ?"
" God only knew ; but the fact of the men of the
plains having been so large was undisputed — their
beards were as many miles long as those of the
present day are inches ! Did not Bheem throw the
forty cubit stone pillar, that now stands at Eerun,
a distance of thirty miles, after the man who was
running away with his cattle !"
I thought of poor father Gregory at Agra ; and
the heavy sigh he gave when asked by Godby what
DEMONS AND GIANTS. 95
progress he was making among the people in the
way of conversion. The faith of these people is cer-
tainly larger than all themustard-seeds in the world !
I told a very opulent and respectable Hindoo
banker one day, that it seemed to us strange that
Vishnoo should come upon the earth merely to sport
with milk-maids, and to hold up an umbrella, how-
ever large, to defend them from a shower. " The
earth, sir," said he, " was at that time infested with
innumerable demons and giants, who swallowed up
men and women as bears swallow white ants ; and
his highness, Krishna, came down to destroy them.
His own mother's brother, Kuns, who then reigned
at Mutra over Goverdhun, was one of these hor-
rible demons. Hearing that his sister would give birth
to a son, that was to destroy him, he put to death
several of her progeny as soon as they were born.
When Krishna was seven days old, he sent a nurse,
with poison on her nipple, to destroy him likewise ;
but his highness gave such a pull at it, that the nurse
dropped down dead ! In falling she resumed her real
shape of a she demon, and her body covered no less
than six square miles ; and it took several thousand
men to cut her up, and burn her, and prevent the
pestilence that must have followed. His uncle then
sent a crane, which caught up his highness, who al-
ways looked very small for his age, and swallowed
him as he would swallow a frog ! But his highness
kicked up such a rumpus in the bird's stomach, that
10
96 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
he was immediately thrown up again. When he was
seven years old his uncle invited him to a feast, and
got the largest and most ferocious elephant in India
to tread him to death as he alighted at the door.
His highness, though then not higher than my waist,
took the enormous beast by one tusk, and after whirl-
ing him round in the air with one hand half a dozen
times, he dashed him on the ground and killed him !
Unable any longer to stand the wickedness of his
uncle, he seized him by the beard, dragged him from
his throne, and dashed him to the ground in the
same manner."
I thought of poor old Father Gregory and the
mustard-seeds again ; and told my rich old friend,
that it all appeared to us indeed passing strange !
The orthodox belief among the Mahomedans is,
that Moses was sixty yards high ; that he carried a
mace sixty yards long; and that he sprang sixty
yards from the ground, when he aimed the fatal blow
at the giant Ooj, the son of Anak, who came from
the land of Canaan, with a mountain upon his back,
to crush the army of Israelites. Still the head of his
mace could reach only to the ankle-bone of the
giant. This was broken with the blow ! The giant
fell, and was crushed under the weight of his own
mountain. Now, a person whose ankle-bone was one
hundred and eighty yards high, must have been al-
most as prodigious as he who carried the fragment
of the Himmalah upon his back ; and he who be-
LEGEND OF HUNNOOMAN. 97
lieves in the one cannot fairly find fault with his
neighbour for believing in the other.
I was one day talking with a very sensible and
respectable Hindoo gentleman of Bundelcund, about
the accident which made Hunnooman drop this frag-
ment of his load at Goverdhun. " All doubts upon
that point," said the old gentleman, " have been put
at rest by holy writ. It is related in our scrip-
tures.
" Bhurut, the brother of Ram, was left regent of
the kingdom of Adjoodheea during his absence at
the conquest of Ceylon. He happened at night to
see Hunnooman passing with the mountain upon his
back, and thinking he might be one of the king of
Ceylon's demons about mischief, he let fly one of
his blunt arrows at him. It hit him on the leg, and
he fell, mountain and all, to the ground. As he fell
he called out in his agony, ' Ram, Ram,' from which
Bhurut discovered his mistake. He went up, raised
him in his arms, and with his kind attentions restored
him to his senses. Learning from him the object of
his journey, and fearing that his wounded brother,
Luckmun, would die before he could get to Ceylon
with the requisite remedy, he offered to send Hunnoo-
man on upon the barb of one of his arrows, moun-
tain and all. To try him, Hunnooman took up his
mountain, and seated himself with it upon the barb
of the arrow, as desired. Bhurut placed the arrow
to the string of his bow, and drawing it till the barb
touched the bow, asked Hunnooman whether he
VOL. II. H
98 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
was ready. * Quite ready,' said Hunnooman ; ' but
I am now satisfied that you are really the brother of
our prince, and regent of his kingdom, which was all
I desired. Pray let me descend ; and be sure that
I shall be at Ceylon in time to save your wounded
brother. He got off, knelt down, placed his fore-
head on Bhurut's foot in submission, resumed his
load, and was at Ceylon by the time the day broke
next morning, leaving behind him the small and in-
significant fragment, on which the town and temples
of Goverdhun now stand.
" While little Krishna was frisking about among
the milk-maids of Goverdhun," continued my old
friend, " stealing their milk, cream, and butter,
Brimha, the creator of the universe, who had heard
of his being an incarnation of Vishnoo, the great pre-
server of the universe, visited the place, and had
some misgivings, from his size and employment, as
to his real character. To try him, he took off through
the sky a herd of cattle, on which some of his favou-
rite playmates were attending, old and young, boys
and all. Krishna, knowing how much the parents of
the boys, and owners of the cattle would be dis-
tressed, created, in a moment, another herd and other
attendants, so exactly like those that Brimha had
taken, that the owners of the one, and the parents
of the other, remained ignorant of the change. Even
the new creations themselves remained equally igno-
rant ; and the cattle walked into their stalls, and the
boys into their houses, where they recognised and
HINDOO PHILOSOPHY. 99
were recognised by their parents, as if nothing had
happened.
" Brimha was now satisfied that Krishna was a
true incarnation of Vishnoo, and restored to him the
real herd and attendants. The others were removed
out of the way by Krishna, as soon as he saw the
real ones coming back."
" But," said I to the good old man, who told me
this with a grave face, " must they not have suffered
in passing from the life given to death ; and why
create them merely to destroy them again?"
" Was he not god the creator himself?" said the
old man ; " does he not send one generation into
the world after another to fulfil their destiny, and
then to return to the earth from which they came,
just as he spreads over the land the grass and the
com ? all is gathered in its season, or withers as that
passes away, and dies."
The old gentleman might have quoted Words-
worth—
" We die, my friend.
Nor we alone, but that which each man loved
And prized in his peculiar nook of earth
Dies with him, or is changed ; and very soon.
Even of the good is no memorial left."
I was one day out shooting with my friend, the
Rajah of Myhere, under the Vindhya range, which
rises five or six hundred feet, almost perpendicularly.
He was an excellent shot with an English double-
H 2
100 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
barrel, and had with him six men just as good. I
asked him " whether we were likely to fall in with
any hares," making use of the term " Khurgosh," or
ass-eared.
" Certainly not," said the Rajah, " if you begin by
abusing them with such a name ; call them ' Lum-
kunas,' sir, long-eared, and we shall get plenty."
He shot one, and attributed my bad luck to the
opprobrious name I had used. While he was re-
loading, I took occasion to ask him " how this range
of hills had grown up where it was?"
" No one can say," replied the Rajah ; " but we
believe, that when Ram went to recover his wife,
Seeta, from the demon king of Ceylon, Rawun, he
wanted to throw a bridge across from the continent
to the island, and sent some of his followers up to
the Himmalah mountains for stones. He had com-
pleted his bridge before they all returned ; and a
messenger was sent to tell those who had not yet
come, to throw down their burthens, and rejoin him
in all haste. Two long lines of these people had got
thus far, on their return, when the messenger met
them. They threw down their loads here, and here
they have remained ever since, one forming the
Vindhya range to the north of this valley, and the
other the Kymore range to the south. The Vindhya
range extends from Mirzapore, on the Ganges, nearly
to the Gulf of Cambay, some six or seven hundred
miles, so that my sporting friend's faith was as capa-
cious as any priest could well wish it ; and those
10
I
THE EMPTY TANK. 101
who have it are likely never to die, or suffer much,
from an overstretch of the reasoning faculties in a
hot climate.
The town stands upon the belt of rocks, about two
miles from its north-eastern extremity ; and in the
midst is the handsome tomb of Runjeet Sing, who
defended Bhurtpore so bravely against Lord Lake's
army. The tomb has, on one side, a tank filled with
water : and on the other another, much deeper than
the first, but without any water at all. We were
surprised at this, and asked what the cause could be.
The people told us, with the air of men who had
never known what it was to feel the uneasy sensation
of doubt, " that Krishna one hot day, after skying
with the milk-maids, had drunk it all dry ; and that
no water would ever stay in it, lest it might be
quaffed by less noble lips!" No orthodox Hindoo
would ever for a moment doubt that this was the
real cause of the phenomenon. Happy people ! How
much do they escape of that pain, which in hot cli-
mates wears us all down in our efforts to trace
moral and physical phenomena to their real causes
and sources I Mind ! mind ! mind ! without any of
it, those Europeans who eat and drink moderately,
might get on very well in this climate. Much of it
weighs them down.
" Oh, sir, the good die first.
And those whose hearts (brains) are dry as summer dust
Bum to the socket."
One is apt sometimes to think that Mahomed,
102 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Menu, and Confucius would have been great be-
nefactors in saving so many millions of their species
from the pain of thinking too much in hot climates,
if they had only written their books in languages
less difficult of acquirement! Their works are at
once " the bane and antidote" of despotism — the
source whence it comes, and the shield which defends
the people from its consuming fire.
The tomb of Soorajmull, the great founder of the
Jat power at Bhurtpore, stands on the north-east
extremity of this belt of rocks, about two miles from
the town, and is an extremely handsome building,
conceived in the very best taste, and executed in the
very best style.* With its appendages of temples
and smaller tombs, it occupies the whole of one side
of a magnificent tank full of clear water ; and on the
other side it looks into a large and beautiful garden.
All the buildings and pavements are formed of the
fine white sandstone of Roop Bass, scarcely inferior
either in quality or appearance to white marble. The
stone is carved in relief, with flowers in good taste.
In the centre of the tomb is the small marble slab
covering the grave, with the two feet of Krishna
carved in the centre, and around them the emblems
of the god, the discus, the skull, the sword, the
rosary. These emblems of the god are put on, that
people may have something godli/ to fix their thoughts
upon. It is by degrees, and with a little ''fear and
trembling^'' that the Hindoos imitate the Mahome-
* See illustration.
JAT TOMBS. 103
dans in the magnificence of their tombs. The ob-
ject is ostensibly to keep the ground on which the
bodies have been burned from being defiled; and
generally Hindoos have been content to raise small
open terraces of brick and stucco work over the spot,
with some image or emblem of the god upon it. The
Jats here, like the princes and Gosaens in Bundel-
cund, have gone a stage beyond this, and raised
tombs, equal in costliness and beauty, to those over
Mahomedans of the highest rank ; still they will not
venture to leave it without a divine image or emblem,
lest the gods might become jealous, and revenge
themselves upon the souls of the deceased, and the
bodies of the living. On one side of Soorajmull's
tomb is that of his wife, or some other female
member of his family ; and upon the slab over her
grave, that is, over the precise spot where she was
burned, are the same emblems, except the sword, for
which a necklace is substituted. At each end of
this range of tombs stands a temple dedicated to
Buldeo, the brother of Krishna ; and in one of them
I found his image, with large eyes, a jet black com-
plexion, and an African countenance. Why is this
that Buldeo should be always represented of this
countenance and colour ; and his brother Krishna,
either white, or of an azure colour, and the Caucor
sian countenance?
The inside of the tomb is covered with beautiful
snow-white stucco work, that resembles the finest
marble; but this is disfigured by wretched paint-
104 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
ings, representing, on one side of the dome, Sooraj-
mull, in Durbar, smoking his hookah, and giving
orders to his ministers ; in another he is at his devo-
tions ; on the third, at his sports, shooting hogs and
deer ; and on the fourth, at war, with some French
officers of distinction figuring before him. He is
distinguished by his portly person in all, and by his
favourite light-brown dress in three places. At his
devotions he is standing all in white, before the tute-
lary god of his house, Hurdeo, In various parts,
Krishna is represented at his sports with the milk-
maids. The colours are gaudy, and apparently as
fresh as when first put on eighty years ago ; but the
paintings are all in the worst possible taste and style.
Inside the dome of Runjeet Sing's tomb, the siege
of Bhurtpore is represented in the same rude taste
and style. Lord Lake is dismounted, and standing
before his white horse giving orders to his soldiers.
On the opposite side of the dome, Runjeet Sing, in a
plain white dress, is standing erect before his idol, at
his devotions, with his ministers behind him. On
the other two sides he is at his favourite field sports.
What strikes one most in all this is the entire ab-
sence of priestcraft He wanted all his revenue for
his soldiers ; and his tutelary god seems, in conse-
quence, to have been well pleased to dispense with
the mediatory services of priests. There are few
temples anywhere to be seen in the territories of
these Jat chiefs ; and, as few of their subjects have
yet ventured to follow them in this innovation upon
UTILITY OF CHURCH ESTABLISHMENTS. 105
old Hindoo usages of building tombs, the countries
under their dominion are less richly ornamented than
those of their neighbours. Those who build tombs
or temples generally surround them with groves of
mangoe and other fine fruit trees, with good wells to
supply water for them, and if they have the means
they add tanks, so that every religious edifice, or work
of ornament, leads to one or more of utility. So it
was in Europe; often the northern hordes swept
away all that had grown up under the institutions of
the Romans and the Saracens : for almost all the great
works of ornament and utility, by which these countries
became first adorned and enriched, had their origin in
church establishments. That portion of India, where
the greater part of the revenue goes to the priest-
hood, will generally be much more studded with
works of ornament and utility than that in which
the greater part goes to the soldiery. I once asked
a Hindoo gentleman, who had travelled all over
India, What part of it he thought most happy and
beautiful ? He mentioned some part of southern
India, about Tanjore, I think, where you could hardly
go a mile without meeting a happy procession, or
coming to a temple full of priests, or find an acre of
land uncultivated.
The countries under the Mahratta government im-
proved much in appearance, and in happiness, I be-
lieve, after the mayors of the palace, who were
Brahmans, assumed the government, and put aside
the Suttarah Rajahs, the descendants of the great
106 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Sewajee. Wherever they could they conferred the
government of their distant territories upon Brah-
mans, who filled all the high offices under them with
men of the same caste, who spent the greater part of
their incomes in tombs, temples, groves, and tanks,
that embellished and enriched the face of the coun-
try, and thereby diffused a taste for such works ge-
nerally among the people they governed. The ap-
pearance of those parts of the Mahratta dominion so
governed is infinitely superior to that of the coun-
tries governed by the leaders of the military class,
such as Scindheea, Hoolcar, and the Ghoosla, whose
capitals are still mere standing camps — a collection
of hovels ; and whose countries are almost entirely
devoid of all those works of ornament and utility
that enrich and adorn those of their neighbours.
They destroyed all they found in those countries
when they conquered them; and they have had
neither the wisdom nor the taste to raise others to
supply their places. The Seikh government is of
exactly the same character ; and the countries they
governed have, I believe, the same wretched appear-
ance— they are swarms of human locusts, who prey
upon all that is calculated to enrich and embellish
the face of the land they infest, and all that can
tend to improve men in their social relations, and to
link their affection to their soil and their govern-
ment. A Hindoo prince is always running to the ex-
treme— he can never take and keep a middle course.
He is either ambitious, and therefore appropriates
ANOTHER VERSION OF THE LEGEND. 107
all his revenues to the maintenance of soldiers, to
pour out in inroads upon his neighbours ; or he is
superstitious, and devotes all his revenue to his
priesthood, who embellish his country at the same
time that they weaken it, and invite invasion, as their
prince becomes less and less able to repel it.
The more popular belief regarding this range of
sandstone hills at Goverdhun is, that Luckmun, the
brother of Ram, having been wounded by Rawun,
the demon king of Ceylon, his surgeon declared
that his wound could be cured only by a decoction
of the leaves of a certain tree, to be found in a cer-
tain hill in the Himmalah mountains. Hunnooman
volunteered to go for it ; but on reaching the place
he found that he had entirely forgotten the descrip-
tion of the tree required ; and, to prevent mistake,
he took up the whole mountain upon his back, and
walked off with it to the plains. As he passed Go-
verdhun, where Bhurut and Churut, the third and
fourth brothers of Ram, then reigned, he was seen
by them. It was night ; and thinking him a strange
sort of fish, Bhurut let fly one of his arrows at him.
It hit him in the leg, and the sudden jerk caused this
small fragment of his huge burden to fall off. He
called out in his agony. Ram, Ram, from which they
learned that he belonged to the army of their bro-
ther, and let him pass on ; but he remained lame for
life from the wound. This accounts very satisfac-
torily, according to popular belief, for the halting
gait of all the monkeys of that species — those who
108 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
are descended lineally from the general, inherit it of
course ; and those who are not, adopt it out of re-
spect for his memory, as all the soldiers of Alexan-
der contrived to make one shoulder appear higher
than another, because one of his happened to be so.
When he passed, thousands and tens of thousands of
lamps were burning upon his mountain, as the people
remained entirely unconscious of the change, and at
their usual occupations. Hunnooman reached Cey-
lon with his mountain, the tree was found upon it,
and Luckmun's wound cured. Goverdhun is now
within the boundary of our territory, and a native
collector resides here from Agra.
109
CHAPTER IX
VERACITY.
The people of Britain are described by Diodorus
Sieulus (book v. chap, ii.) as in a very simple and
rude state, subsisting almost entirely upon the raw
produce of the land ; " but as being a people of much
integrity and sincerity, far from the craft and knavery
of men among us, contented with plain and homely
fare, and strangers to the luxury and excesses of the
rich." In India we find strict veracity most preva-
lent among the wildest and half-savage tribes of the
hills and jungles in central India, or the chain of the
Himmalah mountains ; and among those where we
find it prevail most, we find cattle-stealing most com-
mon— the men of one tribe or one district not deem-
ing it to be any disgrace to lift, or steal, the cattle of
another. I have known the man among the Gonds
of the woods of central India, whom nothing could
induce to tell a lie, join a party of robbers to lift a
herd of cattle from the neighbouring plains for no-
110 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
thing more than as much spirits as he could enjoy at
one bout. I asked a native gentleman of the plains,
in the valley of the Nerbudda one day, what made
the people of the woods to the north and south more
disposed to speak the truth than those more civi-
lized of the valley itself? " They have not yet
learned the value of a lie," said he, with the greatest
simplicity and sincerity, for he was a very honest and
plain spoken man.
Veracity is found to prevail most where there is
least to tempt to falsehood, and most to be feared
from it. In a very rude state of society, like that of
which I have been speaking, the only shape in which
property is accumulated is in cattle ; things are bar-
tered for each other without the use of a circulating
medium ; and one member of a community has no
means of concealing from the other the articles of
property he has. If they were to steal from each
other, they would not be able to conceal what they
stole — to steal, therefore, would be of no advantage.
In such societies every little community is left to
govern itself; to secure the rights, and enforce the
duties of all its several members in their relations
with each other : they are too poor to pay taxes to
keep up expensive establishments, and their govern-
ments seldom maintain among them any for the ad-
ministration of justice, or the protection of life, pro-
perty, or character. All the members of such little
communities will often unite in robbing the members
of another community of their flocks and herds, the
SACRED TREE. Ill
only kind of property they have, or in applauding
those who most distinguish themselves in such en-
terprises ; but the well-being of the community de-
mands that each member should respect the property
of the others, and be punished by the odium of all if
he does not.*
It is equally necessary to the well-being of the
community, that every member should be able to
rely upon the veracity of the other upon the very
few points, where their rights, duties, and interests
clash. In the very rudest state of society, among
the woods and hills of India, the people have some
deity whose power they dread, and whose name they
invoke, when much is supposed to depend upon the
truth of what one man is about to declare. The
Peepul-tree (Ficus Indicus) is everywhere sacred to
the gods, who are supposed to delight to sit among
its leaves, and listen to the music of their rustling.
The deponent takes one of these leaves in his hand,
and invokes the god, who sits above him, to crush
him, or those dear to him, as he crushes the leaf in
his hand, if he speaks anything but the truth ; he
* Johnson says, " Mountaineers are thievish because they are
poor ; and having neither manufactures nor commerce, can grow
rich only by robbery. They regularly plunder their neighbours,
for their neighbours are commonly their enemies ; and having
lost that reverence for property, by which the order of civil life is
preserved, soon consider all as enemies, whom they do not reckon
on as friends, and think themselves licensed to invade whatever
they are not obliged to protect."
Il2 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
then plucks and crushes the leaf, and states what he
has to say.
The large cotton-tree is among the wild tribes of
India, the favourite seat of gods still more terrible,
because their superintendence is confined exclusively
to the neighbourhood; and having their attentions
less occupied, they can venture to make a more
minute scrutiny into the conduct of the people im-
mediately around them. The Peepul is occupied by
one or other of the Hindoo triad, the god of creation,
preservation, or destruction, who have the affairs of
the universe to look after ; but the cotton and other
trees are occupied by some minor deities, who are
vested with a local superintendence over the affairs of
a district, or perhaps of a single village. These are
always in the view of the people, and every man
knows that he is every moment liable to be taken to
their court, and to be made to invoke their vengeance
upon himself, or those dear to him, if he has told a
falsehood in what he has stated, or tells one in what
he is about to state. Men so situated adhere habi-
tually, and, I may say religiously, to the truth ; and
I have had before me hundreds of cases in which a
man's property, liberty, or life, has depended upon
his telling a lie, and he has refused to tell it to save
either — as my friend told me, " they had not learned
the value of a lie," or rather they had not learned
with how much impunity a lie could be told in
the tribunals of civilized society. In their own tri-
bunals, under the Peepul-tree or cotton-tree, imagi-
BRITISH TRIBUNALS. 113
nation commonly did what the deities, who were
supposed to preside, had the credit of doing ; if the
deponent told a lie, he believed that the deity who
sat on the sylvan throne above him, and searched the
heart of man, must know it ; and from that moment
he knew no rest — he was always in dread of his
vengeance : if any accident happened to him, or to
those dear to him, it was attributed to this offended
deity ; and if no accident happened, some evil was
brought about by his own disordered imagination.
In the tribunals we introduce among them, such
people soon find that the judges who preside can
seldom search deeply into the hearts of men, or
clearly distinguish truth from falsehood in the de-
clarations of deponents ; and when they can distin-
guish it, it is seldom that they can secure their con-
viction for perjury. They generally learn very soon,
that these judges, instead of being, like the judges
of their own woods and wilds, the only beings who
can search the hearts of men, and punish them for
falsehood, are frequently the persons, of all others,
most blind to the real state of the deponent's mind,
and the degree of truth and falsehood in his narra-
tive ; that, however well-intentioned, they are often
labouring in the " darkness visible," created by the
native officers around tliem. They not only learn
this, but they learn what is still worse, that they may
tell what lies they please in these tribunals ; and that
not one of them shall become known to the circle
in which they move, and whose good opinion they
VOL. II. I
114 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
value. If, by his lies told in such tribunals, a man has
robbed another, or caused him to be robbed of his
property, his character, his liberty, or his life, he can
easily persuade the circle in which he resides, that it
has arisen, not from any false statements of his, but
from the blindness of the judge, or the wickedness of
the native officers of his court, because all circles con-
sider the blindness of the one, and the wickedness of
the other, to be everywhere very great.
Arrian, in speaking of the class of supervisors in
India, says — " They may not be guilty of falsehood ;
and indeed none of the Indians were ever accused
of that crime." I believe that as little falsehood is
spoken by the people of India, in their village com-
munities, as in any part of the world with an equal
area and population. It is in our courts of justice
where falsehoods prevail most, and the longer they
have been anywhere established, the greater the de-
gree of falsehood that prevails in them. Those en-
trusted with the administration of a newly-acquired
territory, are surprised to find the disposition among
both principals and witnesses in cases to tell the
plain and simple truth. As magistrates, they find it
very often difficult to make thieves and robbers tell
lies, according to the English fashion, to avoid run-
ning a risk of criminating themselves. In England,
this habit of making criminals tell lies, arose from
the severity of the penal code, which made the
punishment so monstrously disproportionate to the
crime, that the accused, however clear and notorious
NATIVE TRIBUNALS. 115
his crime, became an object of general sympathy.
In India, punishments have nowhere been, under our
rule, disproportionate to the crimes ; on the contrary,
they have been generally more mild than the people
would wish them to be, or think they ought to
be, in order to deter from similar crimes ; and in
newly-acquired territories they have generally been
more mild than in our old possessions. The accused
are, therefore, nowhere considered as objects of
public sympathy; and in newly-acquired territo-
ries they are willing to tell the truth, and are allowed
to do so, in order to save the people whom they
have injured, and their neighbours generally, the
great loss and annoyance unavoidably attending upon
a summons to our courts. In the native courts, to
which ours succeed, the truth was seen through im-
mediately ; the judges who presided could commonly
distinguish truth from falsehood in the evidence be-
fore them, almost as well as the sylvan gods who sat
in the peepul or cotton trees ; though they were
seldom supposed by the people to be quite so just in
their decisions. When we take possession of such
countries, they, for a time at least, give us credit for
the same sacjacity^ with a little more integrity. The
prisoner knows that his neighbours expect him to
tell the truth to save them trouble, and will detest
him if he does not ; he supposes that we shall have
the sense to find out the truth whether he tells it
or not, and the humanity to visit his crime with
the measure of punishment it merits, and no more.
I 2
116 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
The magistrate asks the prisoner what made him
steal ; and the prisoner enters at once into an ex-
planation of the circumstances which reduced him to
the necessity of doing so, and offers to bring wit-
nesses to prove them ; but never dreams of offering
to bring witnesses to prove that he did not steal, if he
really had done so — because the general feeling
would be in favour of his doing the one, and against
his doing the other. Tavernier gives an amusing
sketch of Ameer Jumla presiding in a court of jus-
tice, during a visit he paid him in the kingdom
of Golconda, in the year 1648. (See book i. part ii.
chap, xi.)
I asked a native law officer, who called on me one
day, what he thought would be the effect of an act
to dispense with oaths on the Koran and Ganges
water, and substitute a solemn declaration made in
the name of God, and under the same penal liabi-
lities, as if the Koran or Ganges water had been in
the deponent's hand. " I have practised in the courts
for thirty years, sir," said he ; " and during that time I
have found only three kinds of witnesses — two of
whom would, by such an act, be left precisely where
they were, while the third would be released by it
from a very salutary check."
" And pray what are the three classes into which
you divide the witnesses in our courts?"
" First, sir, are those who will always tell the
truth, whether they are required to state what they
know in the form of an oath or not."
8
A NICE DISTINCTION. 117
" Do you think this a large class ?"
" Yes, I think it is ; and I have found among
them many whom nothing on earth could make to
swerve from the truth ; do what you please, you
could never frighten or bribe them into a deliberate
falsehood. The second are those who will not hesi-
tate to tell a lie when they have a motive for it, and
are not restrained by an oath. In taking an oath
they are afraid of two things, the anger of God and
the odium of men. Only three days ago," continued my
friend, " I required a power of attorney from a lady
of rank, to enable me to act for her in a case pending
before the court in this town. It was given to me
by her brother ; and two witnesses came to declare
that she had given it. * Now,' said I, * this lady is
known to live under the curtain ; and you will be
asked by the judge whether you saw her give this
paper: what will you say?' They both replied —
' If the judge asks us the question without an oath,
we will say yes — it will save much trouble, and we
know that she did give the paper, though we did not
really see her give it ; but if he puts the Koran into
our hands, we must say no, for we should otherwise
be pointed at by all the town as perjured wretches —
our enemies would soon tell everybody that we had
taken a false oath.' Now," my friend went on,
" the form of an oath is a great check upon this sort
of persons. The third class consists of men who will
tell lies whenever they have a sufficient motive, whe-
118 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
ther they have the Koran or Ganges water in their
hand or not. Nothing will ever prevent their doing
so ; and the declaration which you propose would be
just as well as any other for them."
" Which class do you consider the most numerous
of the three?"
" I consider the second the most numerous, and
wish the oath to be retained for them."
" That is, of all the men vou see examined in our
courts, you think the most come under the class
of those who will, under the influence of strong
motives, tell lies if they have not the Koran or
Ganges water in their hands ?"
« Yes."
" But do not a great many of those, whom you
consider to be included among the second class, come
from the village communities — the peasantry of the
country?"
" Yes."
" And do you not think that the greatest part of
those men who will tell lies in the court, under the in-
fluence of strong motives, unless they have the Koran
or Ganges water in their hands, would refuse to tell
lies, if questioned before the people of their villages,
among the circle in which they live ?"
" Of course I do ; three-fourths of those who do
not scruple to lie in the courts, would be ashamed to
lie before their neighbours, or the elders of their
village."
TRUTH-SPEAKERS THE MAJORITY. 119
" You think that the people of the village com-
munities are more ashamed to tell lies before their
neighbours than the people of towns ?"
" Much less — there is no comparison."
" And the people of towns and cities bear in India
but a small proportion to the people of the village
communities?"
" I should think a very small proportion indeed."
" Then you think that in the mass of the popula-
tion of India out of our courts, and in their own
circles, the first class, or those who speak truth, whe-
ther they have the Koran or Ganges water in their
hands or not, would be found more numerous than
the other two?"
" Certainly I do ; if they were always to be ques-
tioned before their neighbours or elders, or so that
they could feel that their neighbours and elders would
know what they say."
This man is a very worthy and learned Maho-
medan, who has read all the works on medicine to
be found in Persian and Arabic ; gives up his time
from sunrise in the morning till nine, to the in-
digent sick of the town, whom he supplies gratuit-
ously with his advice and medicines, that cost him
thirty rupees a month, out of about one hundred and
twenty, that he can make by his labours all the rest
of the day.
There can be no doubt, that even in England the
fear of the odium of society, which is sure to follow
the man who has perjured himself, acts more power-
120 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
fully in making men tell the truth, when they have
the Bible in their hands, before a competent and
public tribunal, and with a strong worldly motive to
tell a lie, than the fear of punishment by the Deity
in the next world, for " having taken his name in
vain" in this. Christians, as well as other people,
are too apt to think that there is yet abundance of
time to appease the Deity by repentance and refor-
mation ; but they know that they cannot escape the
odium of society with a free press and high tone of
moral and religious feeling, like those of England, if
they deliberately perjure themselves in an open court,
whose proceedings are watched with so much jea-
lousy. They learn to dread the name of a " perjured
villain" or " perjured wretch," which would embitter
the rest of their lives, and perhaps the lives of their
children.*
In a society much advanced in arts and the re-
finements of life, temptations to falsehood become
very great, and require strong checks from law, reli-
gion, or moral feeling. Religion is seldom of itself
found sufficient; for though men cannot hope to
conceal their transgressions from the Deity, they
can, as I have stated, always hope in time to appease
him. Penal laws are not alone sufficient, for men
* The new act, 5 of 1840, prescribes the following declara-
tion : " I solemnly affirm, in the presence of Almighty God, that
what I shall state shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth ;" and declares, that a false statement made on this
shall be punished as perjury.
HONOUR AMONG THIEVES. 121
can always hope to conceal their trespasses from
those who are appointed to administer them, or at
least to prevent their getting that measure of judi-
cial proof required for their conviction; the dread
of the indignation of their circle of society is every-
where the more efficient of the three checks; and
this check will generally be found most to prevail
where the community is left most to self-govern-
ment— hence the proverb, " There is honour among
thieves." A gang of robbers, who are outlaws, are
of course left to govern themselves ; and unless they
could rely upon each other's veracity and honour, in
their relations with each other, they could do nothing.
If governments were to leave no degree of self-go-
vernment to the communities of which the society
is composed, this moral check would really cease —
the law would undertake to secure every right, and
enforce every duty ; and men would cease to depend
upon each other's good opinion, and good feelings.
There is perhaps no part of the world where the
communities of which the society is composed, have
been left so much to self-government as in India.
There has seldom been any idea of a reciprocity of
duties and rights between the governing and the
governed : the sovereign who has possession feels
that he has a right to levy certain taxes from the
land for the maintenance of the public establish-
ments, which he requires to keep down rebellion
against his rule, and to defend his dominions against
all who may wish to intrude, and seize upon them; and
122 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to assist him in acquiring the dominions of other
princes when favourable opportunities offer; but he has
no idea of a reciprocal duty towards those from whom
he draws his revenues. The peasantry from whom
the prince draws his revenues feel that they are
bound to pay that revenue ; that if they do not pay
it, he will, with his strong arm, turn them out and
give to others their possessions — but they have no
idea of any right on their part to any return from
him. The village communities were everywhere left
almost entirely to self-government ; and the virtues
of truth and honesty, in all their relations with each
other, were indispensably necessary to enable them to
govern themselves. A common interest often united
a good many village communities in a bond of union,
and established a kind of brotherhood over extensive
tracts of richly-cultivated land. Self-interest re-
quired that they should unite to defend themselves
against attacks with which they were threatened at
every returning harvest in a country where every
prince was a robber upon a scale more or less large
according to his means, and took the field to rob
while the lands were covered with the ripe crops
upon which his troops might subsist ; and where
every man who practised robbery with open violence,
followed what he called an " imperial trade,'' " pad-
shahee kam" — the only trade worthy the character of
a gentleman. The same interest required that they
should unite in deceiving their own prince and all
his officers, great and small, as to the real resources
VIRTUE OF LYING. 123
of their estates; because they all knew, that the
prince would admit of no other limits to his exac-
tions than their abilities to pay at the harvest.
Though, in their relations with each other, all these
village communities spoke as much truth as those of
any other communities in the world ; still, in their
relation with the government, they told as many lies
— for falsehood in the one set of relations, would have
incurred the odium of the whole of their circles of
society — truth in the other, would often have in-
volved the same penalty. If a man had told a lie to
cheat his neighbour, he would have become an object
of hatred and contempt — if he had told a lie to save
his neighbour's fields from an increase of rent or
tax, he would have become an object of esteem and
respect. If the government officers were asked,
whether there was any truth to be found among such
communities, they would say no^ that the truth was
not in them ; because they would not cut each other's
throats by telling them the real value of each other's
fields. If the peasantry were asked, they would say,
there was plenty of truth to be found everywhere
except among a few scoundrels, who, to curry favour
with the government ofiScers, betrayed their trust,
and told the value of their neighbours' fields. In
their ideas, he might as well have gone off and
brought down the common enemy upon them in the
shape of some princely robber of the neighbour-
hood !
Locke says, " Outlaws themselves keep faith and
124 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
rules of justice one with another — they practise
them as rules of convenience within their own com-
munities ; but it is impossible to conceive, that they
embrace justice as a practical principle who act fairly
with their fellow highwaymen, and at the same time
plunder or kill the next honest man they meet/'
(Vol. i. p. 37.) In India, the difference between the
army of a prince and the gang of a robber was, in the
general estimationof the people, only in degree — they
were both driving an imperial trade, a '' padshahee
kam r Both took the auspices, and set out on their
expeditions after the Duseyrah, when the autumn
crops were ripening; and both thought the Deity
propitiated as soon as they found the omens favour-
able ; one attacked palaces and capitals — the other
villages and merchants' store-rooms. The members
of the army of the prince thought as little of the
justice or injustice of his cause as those of the gang
of the robber ; the people of his capital hailed the
return of the victorious prince who had contributed
so much to their wealth by his booty, and to their
self-love by his victory. The village community re-
ceived back the robber and his gang with the same
feelings — by their skill and daring they had come
back loaded with wealth, which they were always
disposed to spend liberally with their neighbours.
There was no more of truth in the prince and his
army, in their relations with the princes and people
of neighbouring principalities, than in the robber
and his gang in their relations with the people
CONVERTIBLE TERMS. 125
robbed. The prince flatters the self-love of his
army and his people ; the robber flatters that of his
gang and his village — the question is only in degree :
the persons whose self-love is flattered, are blind to
the injustice and cruelty of the attack — the prince
is the idol of a people, the robber the idol of a gang.
Was ever robber more atrocious in his attacks
upon a merchant or a village, than Louis XIV.
of France, in his attacks upon the Palatine and
Palatinate of the Rhine? How many thousand
similar instances might be quoted of princes idolized
by their people for deeds equally atrocious in their
relations with other people. What nation or sove-
reign ever found fault with their ambassadors for
telling lies to the kings, courts, and people of other
countries ?*
Rome, during the whole period of her history, was
a mere den of execrable thieves, whose feelings were
systematically brutalized by the most revolting spec-
* Hume, in speaking of Scotland in the fifteenth century, says,
" Arms more than laws prevailed ; and courage, preferably to
equity and justice, was the virtue most valued and respected.
The nobility in whom the whole power resided, were so connected
by hereditary alliances, or so divided by inveterate enmities, that
it was impossible, without employing an armed force, either to
punish the most flagrant guilt, or to give security to the most
entire innocence. Rapine and violence, when employed agamst a
hostile tribe, instead of making a person odious among his own clan,
rather recommended him to their esteem and approbation ; and
by rendering him useful to the chieftain, entitled him to the pre-
ference above his fellows."
126 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tacles, that they might have none of those sympathies
with suffering humanity — none of those " compunc-
tious visitings of conscience" which might be found
prejudicial to the interests of the gang, and bene-
ficial to the rest of mankind. Take, for example,
the conduct of this atrocious gang under ^milius
Paulus, against Epirus and Greece generally after
the defeat of Perseus, all under the deliberate decrees
of the senate — take that of this gang under his son
Scipio the younger, against Carthage and Numantia ;
under Cato, at Cyprus — all in the same manner under
the deliberate decrees of the senate ! Take indeed the
whole of her history, as a republic, and we find it
that of the most atrocious gang of robbers that was
ever associated against the rest of their species. In
her relations with the rest of mankind, Rome was
collectively devoid of truth ; and her citizens, who
were sent to govern conquered countries, were no
less devoid of truth individually — they cared nothing
whatever for the feelings or the opinions of the
people governed ; in their dealings with them, truth
and honour were entirely disregarded. The only
people whose favourable opinion they had any desire
to cultivate, were the members of the great gang ;
and the most effectual mode of conciliating them
was, to plunder the people of conquered countries,
and distribute the fruits among them in presents of
one kind or another. Can any man read without
shuddering, that it was the practice among this
atrocious gang, to have all the multitude of unhappy
LOVE AND MURDER. 127
prisoners of both sexes, and of all ranks and ages, wlio
annually graced the triumphs of their generals, taken
off and murdered just at the moment when these
generals reached the Capitol amid the shouts of the
multitude, that their joys might be augmented by
the sight or consciousness of the sufferings of the
others. See Hooke's Roman History, vol. iii. p. 488 ;
vol. iv. p. 541. " It was the custom, that when the
triumphant conqueror turned his chariot towards the
Capitol, he commanded the captives to be led to
prison and there put to death, that so the glory of
the victor and the miseries of the vanquished might
be in the same moment at the utmost !" How many
millions of the most innocent and amiable of their
species must have been offered up as human sacri-
fices to the triumphs of the leaders of this great
gang ! The women were almost as much brutalized
as the men ; lovers met to talk " soft nonsense" at
exhibitions of gladiators. Valeria, the daughter and
sister of two of the first men in Rome, was beautiful,
gay, and lively, and of unblemished reputation.
Having been divorced from her husband, she and the
monster, Sylla, made love to each other at one of
these exhibitions of gladiators, and were soon after
married. Gibbon, in speaking of the lies which
Severus told his two competitors in the contest for
empire, says, " Falsehood and insincerity, unsuitable
as they seem to the dignity of public transactions,
offend us with a less degrading idea of meanness than
when they are found in the intercourse of private
128 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
life. In the latter, they discover a want of courage ;
in the other, only a defect of power : and as it is im-
possible for the most able statesmen to subdue mil-
lions of followers and enemies by their own personal
strength, the world under the name of policy seems
to have granted them a very liberal indulgence of
craft and dissimulation." But the weak in society
are often obliged to defend themselves against the
strong by the same weapons ; and the world grants
them the same liberal indulgence. Men advocate
the use of the ballot in elections, that the weak may
defend themselves and the free institutions of the
country, by dissimulation, against the strong who
would oppress them. The circumstances under
which falsehood and insincerity are tolerated by the
community in the best societies of modern days, are
very numerous ; and the worst society of modern
days in the civilized world, where slavery does not
prevail, is immeasurably superior to the best in
ancient days, or in the middle ages. Do we not
every day hear men and women, in what are called
the best societies, declaring to one individual or one
set of acquaintances, that the pity, the sympathy,
the love, or the admiration they have been express-
ing for others, is, in reality, all feigned to sooth or
please ? As long as the motive is not base, men do
not spurn the falsehood as such. How much of
untruth is tolerated in the best circles of the most
civilized nations, in the relations between electors to
corporate and legislative bodies, and the candidates
VERACITY OF SIPAHEES. 129
for elections ? between nominators to offices under
government and the candidates for nomination ? be-
tween lawyers and clients, venders and purchasers ?
(particularly of horses,) — between the recruiting Ser-
jeant and the young recruit, whom he has found a
little angry with his poor widowed mother, whom he
makes him kill by false pictures of what a soldier
may hope for in the " bellaque matribus detestata"
to which he invites him ?
There is, I believe, no class of men in India from
whom it is more difficult to get the true statement
of a case pending before a court, than the sipahees
of our native regiments ; and yet there are, I believe,
no people in the world from whom it is more easy to
get it in their own village communities, where they
state it before their relations, elders, and neighbours,
whose esteem is necessary to their happiness, and can
be obtained only by an adherence to truth. Every case
that comes before a regimental court, involves, or is
supposed to involve, the interest or feelings of some
one or other of their companions ; and the question
which the deponent asks himself is not what religion,
public justice, the interests of discipline and order,
or the wishes of his officers require ; or what would
appear manly and honourable before the elders of his
own little village ; but what will secure the esteem,
and what will excite the hatred of his comrades.
This will often be downright deliberate falsehood,
sworn upon the Koran or the Ganges water before
VOL. II. K
130 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
his officers. Many a brave sipahee have I seen faint
away from the agitated state of his feelings, under
the dread of the Deity if he told lies, with the Ganges
water in his hands, and of his companions if he told
the truth, and caused them to be punished. Every
question becomes a party question, and " the point
of honour" requires, that every witness shall tell as
many lies about it as possible ! When I go into a
village, and talk with the people in any part of India,
I know that I shall get the truth out of them on all
subjects as long as I can satisfy them, that I am not
come on the part of the government to enquire into
the value of their fields with a view to new imposi-
tions— and this I can always do; but when I go
among the sipahees to ask about anything, I feel
pretty sure that I have little chance of getting at the
truth ; they will take the alarm, and try to deceive
me, lest what I learn should be brought up at some
future day against them or their comrades. The
Duke of Wellington says, speaking of the English
soldiers : " It is most difficult to convict a prisoner
before a regimental court-martial, for, I am sorry to
say, that soldiers have little regard to the oath ad-
ministered to them ; and the officers who are sworn
well and truly to try and determine, according to the
evidence, the matter before them, have too much re-
gard to the strict letter of that administered to
them'' Again — " The witnesses being in almost
every instance common soldiers, whose conduct this
PERSIAN TALE. 131
tribunal was instituted to control, the consequence
is, that purjury is almost as common an offence as
drunkenness and plunder, &c."
In the ordinary civil tribunals of Europe and
America, a man commonly feels, that though he is re-
moved far from the immediate presence of those
whose esteem is necessary to him, their eyes are still
upon him, because the statements he may give will
find their way to them through the medium of the
press. This he does not feel in the civil courts of
India, nor in the military courts of Europe, or of any
other part of the world ; and the man who judges of
the veracity of a whole people from the specimens he
may witness in such courts, cannot judge soundly.
Sheikh Sadee, in his Goolistan, has the following tale.
" I have heard that a prince commanded the execu-
tion of a captive who was brought before him ; when
the captive having no hope of life, told the prince,
that he disgraced his throne. The prince, not under-
standing him, turned to one of his ministers and
asked what he had said. *He says,' replied the
minister, quoting a passage from the Koran, * God
loves those who subdue their passions, forgive inju-
ries, and do good to his creatures.' The prince pitied
the poor captive, and countermanded the orders for
the execution. Another minister, who owed a spite
to the one who first spoke, said, 'Nothing but
truth should be spoken by such persons as we in
the presence of the prince; the captive spoke abusively
and insolently, and you have not interpreted his
K 2
132 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
words truly.' The prince frowned, and said, ' His
false interpretation pleases me more than thy true
one ; because his was given for a good and thine for
a malignant purpose ; and wise men have said, that
' a peace-making lie is better than a factious or anger-
exciting truth.'" He who would too fastidiously
condemn this doctrine, should think of the massacre
of Thessalonica, and how much better it would have
been for the great Theodosius to have had by his
side the peace-making Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan,
than the anger-exciting Rufinus, when he heard of
the offence which that city had committed.
In despotic governments, where lives, characters,
and liberties, are every moment at the mercy, not
only of the prince, but of all his public officers from
the highest to the lowest, the occasions in which men
feel authorised and actually called upon by the com-
mon feelings of humanity, to tell " peace-making
lies," occur every day — nay, every hour. Every
petty officer of government, " armed with his little
brief authority," is a little tyrant surrounded by men
whose all depends upon his will, and who dare not
fcell him the truth — the "point of honour" in this
little circle demands, that every one should be pre-
pared to tell him " peace-making lies ;" and the man
who does not do so when the occasion seems to call
for it, incurs the odium of the whole circle, as one
maliciously disposed to speak " anger-exciting or
factious truths." Poor Cromwell and Ann Boleyn
were obliged to talk of love and duty towards their
TIGERISH EUROPEANS. 133
brutal murderer, Henry VIII., and tell "peace-
making lies" on the scaffold to save their poor chil-
dren from his resentment ! European gentlemen in
India often, by their violence, surround themselves
with circles of the same kind, in which the " point of
honour" demands, that every member shall be pre-
pared to tell "peace-making lies," to save the others
from the effects of their master's ungovernable pas-
sions— falsehood is their only safeguard ; and, con-
sequently, falsehood ceases to be odious. Counte-
nanced in the circles of the violent, falsehood soon
becomes countenanced in those of the mild and for-
bearing ; their domestics pretend a dread of their
anger which they really do not feel ; and they gain
credit for having the same good excuse among those
who have no opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the real character of the gentlemen in their
domestic relations — all are thought to be more or less
tigerish in these relations, particularly before breakfast^
because some are known to be so.
I have known the native officers of a judge who
was really a very mild and worthy man, but who
lived a very secluded life, plead as their excuse for
all manner of bribery and corruption, that their
persons and character were never safe from his vio-
lence ; and urge that men whose tenure of office was
ao very insecure, and who were every hour in the day
exposed to so much indignity, could not possibly be
blamed for making the most of their position. The
society around believed all this, and blamed not the
134 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
native officers but the judge, or the government, who
placed them in such a situation. Other judges and
magistrates have been known to do what this person
was merely reported to do, otherwise society would
neither have given credit to his officers, nor have
held them excused for their malpractices. Those
European gentlemen who allow their passions to get
the better of their reason among their domestics, do
much to lower the character of their countrymen in
the estimation of the people ; but the high officials
who forget what they owe to themselves and the
native officers of their courts, when presiding on the
bench of justice, do ten thousand times more ; and,
I grieve to say, that I have known a few officials of
this class.
We have in England known many occasions, par-
ticularly in the cases of prosecutions by the officers
of government for offences against the state, where
little circles of society have made it a " point of
honour" for some individuals to speak untruths, and
and others to give verdicts against their consciences ;
some occasions indeed where those who ventured to
speak the truth, or to give a verdict according to
their conscience, were in danger from the violence
of popular resentment. Have we not, unhappily, in
England and among our countrymen in all parts of
the world, experience every day of a wide difference
between what is exacted from members of particular
circles of society by the " point of honour," and what
is held to be strict religious truth by the rest of
POINT OF HONOUR. 135
society ? Do we not see gentlemen cheating their
tradesmen, while they dare not leave a gambling
debt unpaid ? The " point of honour" in the circle to
which they belong, demands that the one should be
paid, because the non-payment would involve a
breach of faith in their relations with each other, as
in the case of the members of a gang of robbers ;
but the non-payment of a tradesman's bill involves
only a breach of faith in a gentleman's relations with
a lower order. At least, some gentlemen do not
feel any apprehension of incurring the odium of the
circle in which they move by cheating of this kind. In
the same manner the roue, or libertine of rank, may
often be guilty of all manner of falsehoods and
crimes to the females of the class below him, with-
out any fear of incurring the odium of either males
or females of his own circle; on the contrary, the
more crimes he commits of this sort, the more some-
times he may expect to be caressed by males and
females of his own order. The man who would
not hesitate a moment to destroy the happiness of a
family by the seduction of the wife or the daughter,
would not dare to leave one shilling of a gambling
debt unpaid — the one would bring down upon him
the odium of his circle, but the other would not ;
and the odium of that circle is the only kind of
odium he dreads. Appius Claudius apprehended no
odium from his own order, the patrician, from the
violation of the daughter of Virginius, of the ple-
beian order ; nor did Sextus Tarquinius, of the royal
136 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
order, apprehend any from the violation of Lucretia,
of the patrician order — neither would have been
punished by their own order, but they were both
punished by the injured orders below them.
Our own penal code punished with death the poor
man who stole a little food to save his children from
starvation, wiiile it left, to exult in the caresses of
his own order, the wealthy libertine, who robbed a
father and mother of their only daughter, and con-
signed her to a life of infamy and misery ! the poor
victim of man's brutal passions and base falsehood
suffered inevitable and exquisite punishment, while
the laws and the usages of society left the man himself
untouched ! He had nothing to apprehend if the father
of his victim happened to be of the lower order, or
a minister of the Church of Christ ; because his own
order would justify his refusing to meet the one in
single combat, and the other dared not invite him to
it ; and the law left no remedy !
Take the two parties in England into which
society is politically divided. There is hardly any
species of falsehood uttered by the members of the
party out of power against the members of the
party in power, that is not tolerated and even
applauded by one party ; men state deliberately
what they know to be utterly devoid of truth re-
garding the conduct of their opponents ; they basely
ascribe to them motives by which they know they
were never actuated, merely to deceive the public,
and to promote the interest of their party, without
PARTY LYING. 137
the slightest fear of incurring odium by so doing in
the minds of any but their political opponents. If a
foreigner were to judge of the people of England
from the tone of their newspapers, he would say,
that there was assuredly neither honour, honesty, nor
truth to be found among the classes which furnjshed
the nation with its ministers and legislators ; for a set
of miscreants more atrocious than the Whig and Tory
ministers and legislators of England were repre-
sented to be in these papers, never disgraced the
society of any nation upon earth! Happily all
foreigners who read these journals know that in what
the members of one party say of those of the other,
or are reported to say, there is often but little truth ;
and that there is still less of truth in what the editors
and correspondents of the ultra journals of one party
write about the characters, conduct, and sentiments
of the members of the other.
There is one species of untruth to which we Eng-
lish people are particularly prone in India, and I
am assured everywhere else. It is this. Young
" miss in her teens," as soon as she finds her female
attendants in the wrong, no matter in what way, ex-
claims, " it is so like the natives ;" and the idea of the
same error, vice, or crime, becomes so habitually asso-
ciated in her mind with every native she afterwards
sees, that she can no more separate them than she can
the idea of ghosts and hobgoblins from darkness and
solitude. The young cadet or civilian, as soon as he
finds his valet, butler, or his groom in the wrong,
138 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
exclaims, " It is so like blacky — so like the niggars ;
they are all alike, and what could you expect from
him !" He has been constantly accustomed to the
same vicious association of ideas in his native land —
if he has been brought up in a family of Tories, he has
constantly heard those he most reverenced exclaim,
when they have found, or fancied they found, a Whig
in the wrong, " It is so like the Whigs— they are all
alike ; there is no trusting any of them." If a Protes-
tant, " It is so like the Catholics ; there is no trusting
them in any relation of life." The members of Whig
and Catholic families may say the same perhaps of
Tories and Protestants. An untravelled Englishman
will sometimes say the same of a Frenchman ; and
the idea of everything that is bad in man will be
associated in his mind with the image of a French-
man. If he hears of an act of dishonour by a person
of that nation, " It is so like a Frenchman — they are
all alike ; there is no honour in them." A Tory goes
to America, predisposed to find in all who live under
republican governments, every species of vice and
crime ; and no sooner sees a man or woman mis-
behave, than he exclaims, " It is so like the Ameri-
cans— they are all alike ; but what could you expect
from republicans!" At home, when he considers
himself in relation to the members of the parties
opposed to him in religion or politics, they are asso-
ciated in his mind with everything that is vicious ;
abroad, when he considers the people of other coun-
tries in relation to his own, if they happen to be
PREJUDICES AND PREDILECTIONS. 139
Christians, he will find them associated in his mind
with everything that is good, or everything that is
bad, in proportion as their institutions happen to
conform to those which his party advocates. A
Tory will abuse America and Americans, and praise
the Austrians. A Whig will, pei^haps, abuse the
Austrians and others who live under paternal or
despotic governments; and praise the Americans,
who live under institutions still more free than his
own.
This has properly been considered by Locke as a
species of madness to which all mankind are more or
less subject, and from which hardly any individual
can entirely free himself. " There is," he says,
scarce a man so free from it, but that if he should
always, on all occasions, argue or do as in some cases
he constantly does, would not be thought fitter for
Bedlam than civil conversation. I do not here
mean when he is under the power of an unruly pas-
sion, but in the steady, calm course of his life. That
which thus captivates their reason, and leads men
of sincerity blindfold from common sense, will, when
examined, be found to be what we are speaking of;
some independent ideas, of no alliance to one
another are, by education, custom, and the constant
din of their party, so coupled in their minds, that
they always appear there together, and they can no
more separate them in their thoughts, than if they
were but one idea, and they operate as if they really
were so." (Book ii. chap. 33.)
140 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Perjury had long since ceased to be considered
disgraceful, or even discreditable, among the patrician
order in Rome, before the soldiers ventured to break
their oaths of allegiance. Military service had, from
the ignorance and selfishness of this order, been ren-
dered extremely odious to free-born Romans ; and
they frequently mutinied and murdered their generals,
though they would not desert because they had sworn
not to do so. To break his oath by deserting the
standards of Rome, was to incur the hatred and con-
tempt of the great mass of the people — the soldier
dared not hazard this. But patricians of senatorial
and consular rank, did not hesitate to violate their
oaths whenever it promised any advantage to the
patrician order collectively or individually, because
it excited neither contempt nor indignation in that
order. " They have been false to their generals,"
said Fabius, " but they have never deceived the
gods. I know they can conquer, and they shall
swear to do so," — they swore and conquered.
Instead of adopting measures to make the duties
of a soldier less odious, the patricians turned their
hatred of these duties to account, and at a high
price sold an absolution from their oath. While the
members of the patrician order bought and sold
oaths among themselves merely to deceive the lower
orders, they were still respected among the plebeians ;
but when they began to sell dispensations to the mem-
bers of this lower order^ the latter also by degrees
ceased to feel any veneration for the oath, and it
KINGS AND COURTIERS. 141
was no longer deemed disgraceful to desert duties
which the higher order made no effort to render less
odious.
" That they who draw the breath of life in a court,
and pass all their days in an atmosphere of lies,
should have any very sacred regard for truth, is
hardly to be expected. They experience such false-
hood in all who surround them, that deception, at
least suppression of the truth, almost seems neces-
sary for self-defence ; and accordingly, if their speech
be not framed upon the theory of the French cardi-
nal, that language was given to man for the better
concealment of his thoughts, they at least seem to
regard in what they say, not its resemblance to the
fact in question, but rather its subserviency to the
purpose in view." (Brougham's Geo. 4th.) " Yet,
let it never be forgotten, that princes are nurtured
in falsehood by the atmosphere of lies which en-
velopes their palace; steeled against natural sym-
pathies by the selfish natures of all that surround
them ; hardened in cruelty, psirtly indeed by the
fears incident to their position, but partly too by the
unfeeling creatures, the factious, the unnatural pro-
ductions of a court whom alone they deal with;
trained for tyrants by the prostration which they
find in all the minds which they come in contact
with ; encouraged to domineer by the unresisting
medium through which all their steps to power and
its abuse are made." (Brougham's Carnot.)
142 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
But Lord Brougham is too harsh. Johnson has
observed truly enough, " Honesty is not necessarily
greater where elegance is less ;" nor does a sense of
supreme or despotic power necessarily imply the ex-
ercise or abuse of it. Princes have, happily, the
same yearning as the peasant after the respect and
affection of the circle around them, and the people
under them ; and they must generally seek it by the
same means.
I have mentioned the village communities of India
as that class of the population among whom truth
prevails most ; but I believe there is no class of men
in the world more strictly honourable in their deal-
ings than the mercantile classes of India. Under
native governments, a merchant's books were ap-
pealed to as " holy writ," and the confidence in them
has certainly not diminished under our rule. There
have been instances of their being seized by the ma-
gistrate, and subjected to the inspection of the oificers
of his court. No officer of a native government ven-
tured to seize them ; the merchant was required to
produce them as proof of particular entries; and
while the officers of government did no more, there
was no danger of false accounts. An instance of
deliberate fraud or falsehood among native merchants
of respectable stations in society, is extremely rare.
Among the many hundreds of bills I have had to
take from them for private remittances, I have never
had one dishonoured, or the payment upon one de-
NATIVE MERCHANTS OF INDIA. 143
layed beyond the day specified ; nor do I recollect
ever hearing of one who had. They are so careful
not to speculate beyond their means, that an instance
of failure is extremely rare among them. No one
ever in India hears of families reduced to ruin or
distress by the failure of merchants and bankers;
though here, as in all other countries advanced in
the arts, a vast number of families subsist upon the
interest of money employed by them.
There is no class of men more interested in the
stability of our rule in India than this of the respect-
able merchants ; nor is there any upon whom the
welfare of our government, and that of the people,
more depend. Frugal, first, upon principle, that they
may not in their expenditure encroach upon their
capitals, they become so by habit ; and when they
advance in life they lay out their accumulated wealth
in the formation of those works which shall secure
for them, from generation to generation, the bless-
ings of the people of the towns in which they have
resided, and those of the country around. It would
not be too much to say, that one-half of the great
works which embellish and enrich the face of India,
in tanks, groves, wells, temples, &c., have been formed
by this class of the people solely with the view of
securing the blessings of mankind by contributing to
their happiness in solid and permanent works. " The
man who has left behind him great works in temples,
bridges, reservoirs, and caravansaries for the public
6
144 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
good, does not die," says Sheikh Sadee, the greatest
of eastern poets, whose works are more read and
loved than those of any other uninspired man that
has ever written, not excepting our own beloved
Shakspeare.* He is as much loved and admired by
Hindoos as by Mahomedans ; and from boyhood to
old age he continues the idol of the imaginations of
both. The boy of ten, and the old man of seventy,
alike delight to read and quote him for the music of
his verses, and the beauty of his sentiments, precepts,
and imagery.
It was to the class last mentioned, whose incomes
are derived from the profits of stock invested in ma-
nufactures and commerce, that Europe chiefly owed
its rise and progress after the downfall of the Roman
empire, and the long night of darkness and desola-
tion which followed it. It was through the means of
mercantile industry, and the municipal institutions to
which it gave rise, that the enlightened sovereigns
of Europe were enabled to curb the licence of the
feudal aristocracy, and to give to life, property, and
character, that security without whicli society could
not possibly advance ; and it was through the same
means that the people were afterwards enabled to
put those limits to the authority of the sovereign,
and to secure to themselves that share in the govern-
ment without which society could not possibly be
* I ought to except Confucius, the great Chinese morahst.
MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS. 145
free, or well constituted. Upon the same founda-
tion may we hope to raise a superstructure of muni-
cipal corporations and institutions in India, such as
will give security and dignity to the society ; and the
sooner we begin upon the work the better.
VOL. II. L 1
146
CHAPTER X.
DECLINING FERTILITY OF THE SOIL POPULAR NOTION OF
THE CAUSE.
On the 13th we came on ten miles to Sahur, over
a plain of poor soil, carelessly cultivated, and with-
out either manure or irrigation. Major Godby
left us at Goverdhun to return to Agra. He would
have gone on with us to Delhi ; but having the com-
mand of his regiment, and being a zealous officer, he
did not like to leave it so long during the exercising
season. We felt much the loss of his society. He is
a man of great observation and practical good sense :
has an infinite fund of good-humour, and a cheerful-
ness of temperament that never seems to flag — a
more agreeable companion I have never met. The
villages in these parts are literally crowded with pea-
fowl. I counted no less than forty-six feeding close
by among the houses of one hamlet on the road, all
wild, or rather unappropriatedy for they seemed on
JAT AND MAHRATTA GOVERNMENTS. 147
the best possible terms with the inhabitants. At
Sahur our water was drawn from wells eighty feet
deep ; and this is said to be the ordinary depth from
which water is drawn ; consequently irrigation is too
expensive to be common. It is confined almost ex-
clusively to small patches of garden cultivation in
the vicinity of villages.
On the 14th we came on sixteen miles to Kosee,
for the most part over a poor soil badly cultivated,
and almost exclusively devoted to autumn crops, of
which cotton is the principal. I lost the road in
the morning before daylight, and the trooper, who
usually rode with me, had not come up. I got an
old landholder from one of the villages to walk on
with me a mile, and put me in the right road. I
asked him what had been the state of the country
under the former government of the Jats and Mah-
rattas ; and was told that the greater part was a wild
jungle. " I remember," said the old man, " when
you could not have got out of the road hereabouts
without a good deal of risk. I could not have ven-
tured a hundred yards from the village without the
chance of having my clothes stripped off my back.
Now the whole face of the country is under cultiva-
tion, and the roads are safe ; formerly the govern-
ments kept no faith with their landholders and cul-
tivators, exacting ten rupees where they had bar-
gained for five, whenever they found the crops good ;
but in spite of all this zolm,'' (oppression,) said the
old man, " there was then more burkut (blessings
L 2
148 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
from above) than now. The lands yielded more re-
turns to the cultivator, and he could maintain his
little family better upon ^\e acres than he can now
upon ten."
" To what, my old friend, do you attribute this
very unfavourable change in the productive powers
of your soil?"
" A man cannot, sir, venture to tell the truth at
all times, and in all places," said he.
" You may tell it now with safety, my good old
friend. I am a mere traveller, (Mosafir,) going to
the hills in search of health, from the valley of the
Nerbudda, where the people have been suffering a
good deal from blight, and are much perplexed in
their endeavour to find a cause."
" Here, sir, we all attribute these evils to the
dreadful system of perjury, which the practices of
your judicial courts have brought among the people.
You are perpetually putting the Ganges water into
the hands of the Hindoos, and the Koran into those of
the Mahomedans ; and all kinds of lies are every day
told upon them. God Almighty can stand this no
longer ; and the lands have ceased to be blessed with
that fertility which they had before this sad practice
began. This, sir, is almost the only fault we have
any of us to find with your government; men, by this
system of perjury, are able to cheat each other out
of their rights, and bring down sterility upon the
land, by which the innocent are made to suffer for
the guilty."
CAUSE OF DIMINISHED FERTILITY. 149
On reaching our tents, I asked a respectable farmer,
who came to pay his respects to the commissioner of
the division, Mr. Fraser, what he thought of the
matter, telling him what I had heard from my old
friend on the road. " The diminished fertility is,"
said he, " owing no doubt to the want of those sar
lutary fallows which the fields got under former go-
vernments, when invasions and civil wars were things
of common occurrence, and kept at least two-thirds
of the land waste ; but there is, on the other hand,
no doubt that you have encouraged perjury a good
deal in your courts of justice ; and this perjury must
have some effect in depriving the land of the bless-
ings of God ! Every man now, who has a cause in
your civil courts, seems to think it necessary either
to swear falsely himself, or to get others to do it for
him. The European gentlemen, no doubt, do all
they can to secure every man his right, but, sur-
rounded as they are by perjured witnesses, and cor-
rupt native officers, they commonly labour in the
dark." Much of truth is to be found among the vil-
lage communities of India, where they have been
carefully maintained, if people will go among them
to seek it. Here, as almost everywhere else, truth
is the result of self-government, whether arising
from choice, under municipal institutions, or necessity,
under despotism and anarchy : self-government pro-
duces self-esteem and pride of character.
Close to our tents we found the people at work,
irrigating their wheat-fields from several wells, whose
150 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
waters were all brackish. The crops watered from
these wells were admirable — likely to yield at least
fifteen returns of the seed. Wherever we go we find
signs of a great government passed away — signs that
must tend to keep alive the recollections, and exalt
the ideas of it in the minds of the people. Beyond the
boundary of our military and civil stations we find as
yet few indications of our reign or our character, to
link us with the affections of the people. There is
hardly anything to indicate our existence as a people
or a government in this country ; and it is melan-
choly to think, that in the wide extent of country
over which I have travelled, there should be found
so few signs of that superiority in science and in arts
which we boast of, and really do possess, and ought
to make conducive to the welfare and happiness of
the people in every part of our dominions. The
people and the face of the country are just what
they might have been had they been governed by
police officers and tax-gatherers from the Sandwich
Islands, capable of securing life, property, and cha-
racter, and levying honestly the means of maintain-
ing the establishments requisite for the purpose.
Some time after the journey herein described, in the
early part of November, after a heavy fall of rain, I
was driving alone in my buggy from Gurmuktesur
on the Ganges, to Meerut. The roads were very
bad, the stage a double one, and my horse became
tired, and unable to go on. I got out at a small
village to give him a little rest and food ; and sat
THE HEADMAN OF THE VILLAGE. 151
down under the shade of one old tree upon the trunk
of another, that the storm had blown down, while
my groom, the only servant I had with me, rubbed
down and baited my horse. I called for some parched
gram from the same shop which supplied my horse, and
got a draught of good water, drawn from the well by
an old woman, in a brass jug lent to me for the pur-
pose by the shopkeeper.
While I sat contentedly and happily stripping my
parched gram of its shell, and eating it grain by
grain, the farmer, or head landholder of the village, a
sturdy old Rajpoot, came up and sat himself, without
any ceremony, down by my side, to have a little con-
versation. To one of the dignitaries of the land, in
whose presence the aristocracy are alone considered
entitled to chairs, this easy familiarity on the part of
a poor farmer seems at first somewhat strange and
unaccountable ; he is afraid that the man intends to
offer him some indignity, or what is still worse, mis-
takes him for something less than the dignitary ! The
following dialogue took place.
" You are a Rajpoot, and a Zemindar ?" (land-
holder.)
" Yes ; I am the head landholder of this village."
" Can you tell me how that village in the distance
is elevated above the ground ; is it from the debris
of old villages, or from a rock underneath?"
" It is from the debris of old villages. That is
the original seat of all the Rajpoots around ; we all
trace our descent from the founders of that village
who built and peopled it many centuries ago."
152
KAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
^ And you have gone on subdividing your inhe-
ritances here as elsewhere, no doubt, till you have
hardly any of you anything to eat?"
" True, we have hardly any of us enough to eat ;
but that is the fault of the government, that does
not leave us enough — that takes from us as much
when the season is bad as when it is good !"
" But your assessment has not been increased,
has it?"
" No ; we have concluded a settlement for twenty
years upon the same footing as formerly."
" And if the sky were to shower down upon you
pearls and diamonds, instead of water, the govern-
ment would never demand more from you than the
rate fixed upon?"
" No."
" Then why should you expect remissions in bad
seasons?"
" It cannot be disputed that the burkut (blessing
from above) is less under you than it used to be
formerly, and that the lands yield less to our
labour."
" True, my old friend, but do you know the reason
why?"
" No."
" Then I will tell you. Forty or fifty years ago,
in what you call the times of the burkut, (blessing
from above,) the cavalry of Seikh, freebooters from
the Punjab, used to sweep over this fine plain, in
which stands the said village from which you are all
RAVAGES OF THE SEIKHS. 153
descended ; and to massacre the whole population of
some villages, and a certain portion of that of every
other village ; and the lands of those killed used
to lie waste for want of cultivators. Is not this all
true?"
** Yes, quite true."
" And the fine groves which had been planted over
this plain by your ancestors, as they separated from
the great parent stock, and formed independent vil-
lages and hamlets for themselves, were all swept
away and destroyed by the same hordes of freebooters,
from whom your poor imbecile emperors, cooped up
in yonder large city of Delhi, were utterly unable to
defend you?"
" Quite true," said the old man with a sigh. " T
remember when all this fine plain was as thickly
studded with fine groves of mango-trees as Rohil-
cund, or any other part of India."
" You know that the land requires rest from
labour, as well as men and bullocks ; and that if you
go on sowing wheat, and other exhausting crops, it
will go on yielding less and less returns, and at last
not be worth the tilling ?"
" Quite well."
" Then why do you not give the land rest by leav-
ing it longer fallow, or by a more frequent alterna-
tion of crops relieve it?"
" Because we have now increased so much, that we
should not get enough to eat were we to leave it to
154 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
fallow ; and unless we tilled it with exhausting crops
we should not get the means of paying our rents to
government."
" The Seikh hordes in former days prevented this ;
they killed off a certain portion of your families, and
gave the land the rest which you now refuse it. When
you had exhausted one part, you found another re-
covered by a long fallow, so that you had better re-
turns ; but now that we neither kill you, nor suffer
you to be killed by others, you have brought all the
cultivable lands into tillage ; and under the old sys-
tem of cropping to exhaustion, it is not surprising
that they yield you less returns."
By this time we had a crowd of people seated
around us upon the ground, as I went on munching
my parched gram, and talking to the old patriarch.
They all laughed at the old man at the conclu-
sion of my last speech ; and he confessed I was right.
" This is all true, sir, but still your government is
not considerate; it goes on taking kingdom after
kingdom, and adding to its dominions without
diminishing the burthen upon us, its old subjects.
Here you have had armies away taking Affghan-
istan, but we shall not have one rupee the less to
pay!"
" True, my friend, nor would you demand a rupee
less from those honest cultivators around us, if we
were to leave you all your lands untaxed. You
complain of the government — they complain of
LAW OF INHERITANCE. 155
you." (Here the circle around us laughed at the
old man again.) " Nor would you subdivide the
lands the less for having it rent free ; on the con-
trary, it would be every generation subdivided
the more, inasmuch as there would be more of
local ties, and a greater disinclination on the part of
the members of families to separate, and seek ser-
vice abroad."
" True, sir, very true— that is, no doubt, a very
great evil."
" And you know it is not an evil produced by us,
but one arising out of your own laws of inheritance.
You have heard, no doubt, that with us the eldest
son gets the whole of the land, and the younger
sons all go out in search of service, with such share
as they can get of the other property of their
father?"
" Yes, sir ; but where shall we get service — you
have none to give us. I would serve to-morrow if
you would take me as a soldier," said he, stroking
his white whiskers.
The crowd laughed heartily ; and some wag ob-
served, " that I should perhaps think him too old !"
" Well," said the old man smiling, " the gentle-
man is not himself very young, and yet I dare say he
is a good servant of his government."
This was paying me off for making the people
laugh at his expense. " True, my old friend," said
I ; " but I began to serve when I was young, and
have been long learning."
156 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" Very well," said the old man ; " but I should be
glad to serve the rest of my life upon a less salary
than you got when you began to learn."
" Well, my friend, you complain of our govern-
ment ; but you must acknowledge that we do all we
can to protect you, though it is true that we are
often acting in the dark ?"
" Often, sir ! you are always acting in the dark ;
you hardly any of you know anything of what your
revenue and police officers are doing ; there is no
justice or redress to be got without paying for it ;
and it is not often that those who pay can get it."
" True, my old friend, that is bad all over the world.
You cannot presume to ask anything even from the
Deity himself, without paying the priest who officiates
in his temples ; and if you should, you would none of
you hope to get from your Deity what you asked for!"
Here the crowd laughed again ; and one of them
said, " that there was certainly this to be said for our
government, that the European gentlemen them-
selves never took bribes, whatever those under them
might do."
" You must not be too sure of that neither. Did
not the Lai Beebee, the red lady, get a bribe for so-
liciting the judge, her husband, to let go Ameer
Sing, who had been confined in jail ?"
*' How did this take place?"
" About three years ago, Ameer Sing was sen-
tenced to imprisonment, and his friends spent a great
deal of money in bribes to the native officers of the
THE RED LADY. 157
court, but all in vain. At last they wero recom-
mended to give a handsome present to the red lady.
They did so, and Ameer Sing was released."
" But did they give the present in the lady's own
hand?"
" No, they gave it to one of her women."
" And how do you know that she ever gave it to
her mistress, or that her mistress ever heard of the
transaction ?"
" She might certainly have been acting without
her mistress's knowledge ; but the popular belief is,
that the Lai Beehee got the present."
I then told the story of the affair at Jubbulpore,
when Mrs. Smith's name had been used for a similar
purpose, and the people around us were all highly
amused ; and the old man's opinion of the transac*
tion with the red lady evidently underwent a change.*
We became good friends, and the old man begged
me to have my tents, which he supposed were coming
up, pitched among them, that he might have an op-
* Some of Mr. Smith's servants entered into a combination to
defraud a suitor in his court of a large sum of money, which he
was to pay to Mrs. Smith as she walked in the garden. A danc-
ing girl from the town of Jubbulpore was made to represent Mrs.
Smith, and a suit of Mrs. Smith's clothes was borrowed for her
from the washerman. The butler took the suitor to the garden,
and introduced him to the supposed Mrs. Smith, who received
him very graciously, and condescended to accept his offer of five
thousand rupees in gold mohurs. The plot was afterwards dis-
covered, and the old butler, washerman and all, were sentenced
to labour in a rope on the roads.
158 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
portunity of showing that he was not a bad subject,
though he grumbled against the gOA^ernment.
The next day, at Meerut, I got a visit from the
chief native judge, whose son, a talented youth, is in
my office. Among other things, I asked him whe-
ther it might not be possible to improve the cha-
racter of the police by increasing the salaries of the
officers, and mentioned my conversation with the
landholder.
" Never, sir," said the old gentleman ; " the man
that now gets twenty-five rupees a month is contented
with making perhaps fifty or seventy-five more ; and
the people subject to his authority pay him accord-
ingly. Give him a hundred, sir, and he will put a
shawl over his shoulders, and the poor people will be
obliged to pay him at a rate that will make up his
income to four hundred. You will only alter his
style of living, and make him a greater burthen to
the people — he will always take as long as he thinks
he can with impunity."
" But do you not think that when people see a
man adequately paid by the government, they will
the more readily complain of any attempt at unau-
thorised exactions ? "
" Not a bit, sir, as long as they see the same diffi-
culties in the way of prosecuting him to conviction.
In the administration of civil justice (the old gentle-
man is a civil judge) you may occasionally see your
way, and understand what is doing ; but in revenue
and police you never have seen it in India, and never
REVENUE AND POLICE. 159
will, I think. The officers you employ will all add 'j
to their incomes by unauthorised means ; and the i
lower these incomes the less their pretensions, and \
the less the populace have to pay." \
160
CHAPTER XL
CONCENTRATION OF CAPITAL, AND ITS EFFECTS.
KosEE stands on the borders of Ferozepore, the
estate of the late Shumshoodeen, who was hanged at
Delhi on the 3rd of October, 1835, for the murder
of William Fraser, the representative of the Governor-
general in the Delhi city and territories. The
Mewaties, of Ferozepore, are notorious thieves and
robbers. During the Nawab's time they dared not
plunder within his territory, but had a free licence
to plunder wherever they pleased beyond it. They
will now be able to plunder at home, since our tri-
bunals have been introduced, to worry prosecutors
and their witnesses to death by the distance they
have to go, and the tediousness of our process ; and
thereby to secure impunity to offenders, by making
it the interest of those who have been robbed, not
only to bear with the first loss without complaint,
but largely to bribe police officers to conceal the
crimes from their master, the magistrate, when they
BARBARITY OF HOLCAR. IGl
happen to come to their knowledge ! Here it was
that Jeswunt Rao Holcar gave a grand ball on the
14th of October, 1804, while he was with his cavalry
covering the siege of Delhi by his regular brigade.
In the midst of the festivity he had an European
soldier of the king's seventy-sixth regiment, who had
been taken prisoner, strangled behind the curtain,
and his head stuck upon a spear and placed in the
midst of the assembly, where the Natch girls were
made to dance round it ! Lord Lake reached the
place the next morning in pursuit of this monster ;
and the gallant regiment, who here heard the story,
had soon an opportunity of revenging the foul murder
of their comrade in the battle of Deeg, one of the
most gallant passages of arms we have ever had
in India.
Near Kosee there is a factory in ruins belonging
to the late firm of Mercer and Company. Here the
cotton of the district used to be collected and screwed
under the superintendence of European agents, pre-
paratory to its embarkation for Calcutta on the river
Jumna. On the failure of the firm, the establish-
ment was broken up, and the work, which was then
done by one great European merchant, is now done
by a score or two of native merchants. There is,
perhaps, nothing which India wants more than the
concentration of capital ; and the failure of all the
great commercial houses in Calcutta, in the year
1833, was, unquestionably, a great calamity. They
none of them brought a particle of capital into the
VOL. II. M
162 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
country, nor does India want a particle from any
country ; but they concentrated it ; and had they em-
ployed the whole, as they certainly did a good deal
of it, in judiciously improving and extending the in-
dustry of the natives, they might have been the
source of incalculable good to India, its people, and
its government.
To this concentration of capital in great commer-
cial and manufacturing establishments, which forms
the grand characteristic of European in contradistinc-
tion to Asiatic societies in the present day, must we look
for those changes which we consider desirable in the
social and religious institutions of the people. Where
land is liable to eternal subdivision by the law and the
religion of both the Mahomedan and Hindoo popu-
lation; where every great work, that improves its
productive powers, and facilitates the distribution of
its produce among the people, in canals, roads,
bridges, &c., is made by government ; where capital
is nowhere concentrated in gTeat commercial or ma-
nufacturing establishments, — there can be no upper
classes in society but those of office ; and of all so-
cieties, perhaps that is the worst in which the higher
classes are so exclusively composed. In India, public
office has been, and must continue to be, the only
road to distinction, until we have a law of primoge-
niture, and a concentration of capital. In India no
man has ever thought himself respectable, or been
thought so by others, unless he is armed with his
little Hookoomut ; his " little brief authority" under
CONCENTRATION OF CAPITAL. 163
government, that gives him the command of some
public establishment paid out of the revenues of the
state. In Europe and America, where capital has
been concentrated in great commercial and manu-
facturing establishments, and free institutions prevail
almost as the natural consequences, industry is every-
thing ; and those who direct and command it are,
happily, looked up to as the source of the wealth, the
strength, the virtue, and the happiness of the nation.
The concentration of capital in such establishments
may, indeed, be considered, not only as the natural
consequence, but as the pervading cause of the free
institutions by which the mass of the people in
European countries are blessed. The mass of the
people were as much brutalized and oppressed by
the landed aristocracy, as they could have been by
any official aristocracy, before towns and higher
classes were created by the concentration of capital.
The same observations are applicable to China.
There the land all belongs to the sovereign, as in
India; and, as in India, it is liable to the same
eternal subdivision among the sons of those who hold
it under him. Capital is nowhere more concentrated
in China than in India ; and all the great works that
add to the fertility of the soil, and facilitate the dis-
tribution of the land labour of the country, are
formed by the sovereign out of the public revenue.
The revenue is, in consequence, one of office ; and
no man considers himself less respectable, unless in-
vested with some office under government — that is,
M 2
164 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
under the Emperor. Subdivision of labour, concen-
tration of capital, and machinery, render an English-
man everywhere dependent upon the co-operation of
multitudes ; while the Chinaman, who as yet knows
little of either, is everywhere independent, and able
to work his way among strangers. But this very
dependence of the Englishman upon the concentra-
tion of capital is the greatest source of his strength
and pledge of his security, since it supports those
members of the higher orders who can best under-
stand and assert the rights and interests of the
whole.
If we had any great establishments of this sort in
which Christians could find employment, and the
means of religious and secular instruction, thousands
of converts would soon flock to them ; and they
would become vast sources of future improvement
in industry, social comfort, municipal institutions,
and religion. What chiefly prevents the spread of
Christianity in India is the dread of exclusion from
caste and all its privileges ; and the utter hopeless-
ness of their ever finding any respectable circle of
society of the adopted religion, which converts, or
would be converts to Christianity, now everywhere
feel. Form such circles for them — make the mem-
bers of these circles happy in the exertion of honest
and independent industry — let those who rise to
eminence in them feel, that they are considered as
respectable and as important in the social system as
the servants of government, and converts will flock
CAUSES OF CONVERSION. 165
around you from all parts, and from all classes of the
Hindoo community. I have, since I have been in
India, had, I may say, at least a score of Hindoo
grass-cutters turn Mussulmans, merely because the
grooms and the other grass-cutters of my establish-
ment happened to be of that religion, and they could
neither eat, drink, nor smoke with them ' Thou-
sands of Hindoos, all over India, become every year
Mussulmans from the same motive ; and we do not
get the same number of converts to Christianity,
merely because we cannot offer them the same ad-
vantages. I am persuaded that a dozen such esta-
blishments as that of Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde,
as described by a physician of Manchester, and no-
ticed in Mr. Baines's admirable work on the Cotton
Manufactures of Great Britain, (page 447,) would do
more in the way of conversion among the people of
India than has ever yet been done by all the reli-
gious establishments, or ever will be done by them,
without some such aid.
I have said that the great commercial houses of
Calcutta, which in their ruin involved that of so
many useful establishments scattered over India, like
that of Kosee, brought no capital into the country.
They borrowed from one part of the civil and mili-
tary servants of government at a high interest, that
portion of their salary which they saved ; and lent it
at a higher interest to others of the same establish-
ment, who for a time required, or wished to spend,
more than they received ; or they emj^loyed it at a
166 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
higher rate of profit for great commercial and ma-
nufacturing establishments scattered over India, or
spread over the ocean. Their great error was in
mistaking nominal for real profits. Calculating their
dividend on their nominal profits, and never sup-
posing that there could be any such things as losses
in commercial speculation, or bad debts from mis-
fortunes and bad faith, they squandered them in
lavish hospitality and ostentatious display, or allowed
their retiring members to take them to England, and
to every other part of the world, where their credi-
tors might not find them; till they discovered that all
the real capital left at their command was hardly
sufiicient to pay back with the stipulated interest
one-tenth of what they had borrowed. The mem-
bers of those houses who remained in India up to
the time of the general wreck were of course re-
duced to ruin, and obliged to bear the burthen of
the odium and indignation which the ruin of so many
thousands of confiding constituents brought down
upon them. Since that time, the savings of civil
and military servants have been invested either in
government securities, at a small interest, or in
banks, which make their profit in the ordinary way,
by discounting bills of exchange, and circulating
their own notes for the purpose, or by lending out
their money at a high interest of ten or twelve per
cent, to other members of the same services.
On the 16th of January we went on to Horul, ten
miles, over a plain, with villages numerous and
HORUL. 167
large ; and in every one some fine large building of
olden times. Surae, palace, temple, or tomb, but
all going to decay. The population, much more
dense than in any of the native states I have
seen ; villages larger, and more numerous ; trade, in
the transit of cotton, salt, sugar, and grain, much
brisker. A great number of hares were here brought
to us for sale, at threepence a piece ; a rate at which
they sell at this season in almost all parts of upper
India, where they are very numerous, and very easily
caught in nets.
168
CHAPTER XIL
TRANSIT DUTIES IN INDIA — MODE OF COLLECTING THEM.
At Horul resides a collector of Customs, with two
or three un covenanted European assistants, as patrol
officers. The rule now is to tax only the staple
articles of produce from the west on their transit,
down into the valley of the Jumna and Ganges ; and
to have only one line on which these articles shall be
liable to duties. They are free to pass everywhere
else without search or molestation. This has, no
doubt, relieved the people of these provinces from an
infinite deal of loss and annoyance inflicted upon
them by the former system of levying the Custom
duties ; and that without much diminishing the net
receipts of government from this branch of its re-
venues. But the time may come when government
will be constrained to raise a greater portion of its
collective revenues than it has hitherto done from
indirect taxation; and when this time comes, the
rule which confines the impost to a single line, must
»
COLLECTION OF DUTIES. 160
of course be abandoned. Under the former system,
one great man, with a very high salary, was put in
to preside over a host of native agents with very
small salaries; and without any responsible inter-
mediate agent whatever to aid him, and to watch
over them. The great man was selected without
any reference to his knowledge of, or fitness for, the
duties entrusted to him, merely because he happened
to be of a certain standing in a certain exclusive
service, which entitled him to a certain scale of
salary ; or because he had been found unfit for judi-
cial or other duties requiring more intellect and
energy of character. The consequence was, that for
every one rupee that went into the public treasury,
ten were taken by these harpies, from the merchants
or other people over whom they had, or could pre-
tend to have, a right of search.
Some irresponsible native officer, who happened
to have the confidence of the great man, (no matter
in what capacity he served him,) sold for his own
profit, and for that of those whose good will he might
think it worth while to conciliate, the offices of all
the subordinate agents immediately employed in the
collection of the duties. A man who was to receive
an avowed salary of seven rupees a month, would
give him three or four thousand for his post ; be-
cause it would give him charge of a detached post,
in which he could soon repay himself with a hand-
some profit. A poor Peon, who was to serve under
others, and could never hope for an independent
170 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
charge, would give five hundred rupees for an office
which yielded him avowedly only four rupees a
month. All arrogated the right of search ; and the
state of Indian society, and the climate, were admi-
rably suited to their purpose. A person of any re-
spectability would feel himself dishonoured, were the
females of his family to be seen, much less touched,
while passing along the road in their palanquin or
covered carriage; and to save himself from such a
dishonour, he was everywhere obliged to pay these
Custom-house officers. Many articles that pass in
transit through India, would suffer much damage
from being opened along the road at any season, and
be liable to be spoiled altogether during that of the
rains; and these harpies could always make the
merchants open them, unless they paid libe-
rally for their forbearance. Articles were rated to
the duty according to their value ; and articles of
the same weight were often, of course, of very dif-
ferent values. These officers could always pretend
that packages, liable to injury from exposures, con-
tained within them, among the articles set forth in
the invoice, others of greater value, in proportion to
their weight. Men who carried pearls, jewels, and
other articles very valuable, compared with their
bulk, always depended for their security from robbers
and thieves on their concealment ; and there was no-
thing which they dreaded so much as the insolence
and rapacity of these Custom House officers, who
made them pay large bribes, or exposed their goods.
8
COLLECTION OF DUTIES. 171
Gangs of thieves had members in disguise at such
stations, who were soon able to discover, through the
insolence of the officers, and the fears and entreaties
of the merchants, whether they had anything worth
taking or not. A party of thieves from Duteea, in
1832, followed Lord William Bentinck's camp to the
bank of the river Jumna, near Mutra, where they
found a poor merchant humbly entreating an inso-
lent Custom-house officer not to insist upon his
showing the contents of the little box he carried in
his carriage, lest it might attract the attention of
thieves, who were always to be found among the fol-
lowers of such a camp, and offering to give him any-
thing reasonable for his forbearance. Nothing he
could be got to offer would satisfy the rapacity of the
man ; the box was taken out and opened. It con-
tained jewels, which the poor man hoped to sell to
advantage among the European ladies and gentle-
men of the Governor-general's suite. He replaced
his box in his carriage ; but in half an hour it was
travelling post-haste to Duteea, by relays of thieves
which had been posted along the road for such occa-
sions. They quarrelled about the division; swords
were drawn, and wounds inflicted. One of the gang
ran off to the magistrate at Saugor, with whom he
had before been acquainted ; and he sent him back
with a small party, and a letter to the Duteea Rajah,
requesting that he would get the box of jewels for
the poor merchant. The party took the precaution
of searching the house of the thieves before they
172 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
delivered the letter to their friend the minister, and
by this means recovered above half the jewels, which
amounted in all to about seven thousand rupees.
The merchant was agreeably surprised when he got
back so much of his property through the magistrate
of Mutra, and confirmed the statement of the
thief regarding the dispute with the Custom-house
officer, which enabled them to discover the value of
the box.
Should government by-and-by extend the system
that obtains in this single line, to the Customs all
over India, they may greatly augment their revenue
without any injury, and with but little necessary loss
and inconvenience to merchants. The object of all
just taxation is, to make the subjects contribute
to the public burthen, in proportion to their means,
and with as little loss and inconvenience to them-
selves as possible. The people who reside west of
this line, enjoy all their salt, their cotton, and other
articles which are taxed on crossing the line, without
the payment of any duties ; while those to the east
of it are obliged to pay. It is, therefore, not a
just line. The advantages are — 1st, that it inter-
poses a body of most efficient officers between the
mass of harpies and the heads of the department,
who now virtually superintend the whole system,
whereas, they used formerly to do so merely osten-
sibly. They are at once the tapis of Prince Hosain,
and the telescope of Prince Ali : they enable the
heads of departments to be everywhere, and see
THE COOK AND BUTLER. 173
everything, whereas before they were nowhere and
saw nothing.* Secondly, it makes the great staple
articles of general consumption alone liable to the
payment of duties ; and thereby does away, in a great
measure, with the odious right of search.
At Kosee our friend, Charles Fraser, left us to
proceed through Mutra to Agra ; he is a very
worthy man, and excellent public officer — one of
those whom one always meets again with pleasure,
and of whose society one never tires. Mr. Wilmot,
the collector of Customs, and Mr. Wright, one of
the patrol officers, came to dine with us. The wind
blew so hard all day, that the cook and khansamah
(butler) were long in despair of being able to give us
any dinner at all. At last we managed to get a tent,
closed at every crevice to keep out the dust, for a
cook-room ; and they were thus able to preserve
their master's credit, which, no doubt, according to
their notions, depended altogether on the quality
of his dinner.
* The same observations, mutatis mutandis^ are applicable to
the magistracy of the country ; and the remedy for all the great
existing evils must be sought in the same means, the interposi-
tion of a body of efficient officers between the magistrate and the
Thanadars, or present head police officers of small divisions.
174
CHAPTER XIII,
PEASANTRY OF INDIA ATTACHED TO NO EXISTING GOVERN-
MENT WANT OF TREES IN UPPER INDIA — CAUSE AND
CONSEQUENCE — WELLS AND GROVES.
What strikes one most after crossing the Chum-
bul is, I think, the improved size and bearing of the
men t they are much stouter, and more bold and
manly, without being at all less respectful. They
are certainly a noble peasantry, full of courage, spirit,
and intelligence ; and heartily do I wish that we
could adopt any system that would give our govern-
ment a deep root in their affections, or link their
interest inseparably with its prosperity ; for with all
its defects, life, property, and character are certainly
more secure, and all their advantages more freely
enjoyed under our government than under any other
they have ever heard of, or that exists at present in
any other part of the country. The external sub-
division of the landed property reduces them too
much to one common level; and prevents the for-
PEASANTRY OF INDIA. 175
mation of that middle class which is the basis of all
that is great and good in European societies — the
great vivifying spirit which animates all that is good
above it in the community. It is a singular fact,
that the peasantry, and, I may say, the landed in-
terest of the country generally, have never been the
friends of any existing government — have never con-
sidered their interests and that of their government
the same ; and, consequently, have never felt any
desire for its success or its duration.
The towns and villages all stand upon high mounds
formed of the debris of former towns and villages,
that have been accumulating most of them for thou-
sand of years. They are for the most part mere col-
lections of wretched hovels built of frail materials,
and destined only for a brief period.
" Man wants but little here below.
Nor wants that little long ;"
And certainly there is no climate in the world where
man wants less than in this of India generally, and
upper India particularly. A peasant lives in the
open air ; and a house to him is merely a thing to eat
and sleep in, and to give him shelter in the storm,
which comes upon him but seldom, and never in a
pitiless shape. The society of his friends he enjoys in
the open air ; and he never furnishes his house for
their reception or for display. The peasantry of
India, in consequence of living and talking so much
in the open air, have all stentorian voices, which
176 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
they find it exceedingly difficult to modulate to our
taste when they come into our rooms.
Another thing- in this part of India strikes a travel-
ler from other parts, — the want of groves of fruit trees
around the villages, and along the roads. In every
other part of India he can at every stage have his
tents pitched in a grove of mango trees, that defend
his followers from the direct rays of the sun in the
daytime, and from the cold dews at night ; but in
the district above Agra, he may go for ten marches
without getting the shelter of a grove in one. The
Seikhs, the Mahrattas, the Jats, and the Pathans,
destroyed them all during the disorders attending
the decline of the Mahomedan empire ; and they
have never been renewed, because no man could
feel secure that they would be suffered to stand ten
years. A Hindoo believes that his soul in the next
world is benefited by the blessings and grateful feel-
ings of those of his fellow creatures, who, unmolested,
eat the fruit and enjoy the shade of the trees he has
planted during his sojourn in this world ; and unless
he can feel assured, that the traveller and the public
in general will be permitted to do so, he can have
no hope of any permanent benefit from his good
work. It might as well be cut down, as pass into
the hands of another person, who had no feeling of
interest in the eternal repose of the soul of the planter.
That person would himself have no advantage in the
next world from giving the fruit and the shade of
the trees to the public, since the prayers of those
RESUMPTION OF LANDS. 177
who enjoyed them would be offered for the soul of
the planter, and not for his — he, therefore, takes all
their advantage to himself in this world, and the
planter and the public are defrauded. Our govern-
ment thought they had done enough to encourage
the renewal of these groves when, by a regulation,
they gave to the present lessees of villages the privi-
leges of planting them themselves, or permitting
others to plant them; but where they held their
leases for a term of only five years, of course they
would be unwilling to plant them. They might
lose their lease when the time expired, or forfeit it
before ; and the successor would have the land on
which the trees stood, and would be able to exclude
the public, if not the proprietor, from the enjoyment
of any of their advantages. Our government has,
in effect, during the thirty-five years that it has held
the dominion of the north-western provinces, pro-
hibited the planting of mango groves, while the old
ones are every year disappearing. In the resump-
tion of rent-free lands, even the ground on which
the finest of these groves stand, has been recklessly
resumed ; and the proprietors told, that they may
keep the trees they have, but cannot be allowed to
renew them, as the lands are become the property
of government. The lands of groves that have been
the pride of families for a century and a half have been
thus resumed. Government is not aware of the
irreparable mischief they do the country they govern
by such measures.
VOL. II. N
178 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
On my way back from Meerut, after the
conversation already related with the farmer of
the small village, my tents were one day pitched,
in the month of December, amidst some very fine
garden cultivation in the district of Alagurh ; and in
the evening I walked out as usual to have some talk
with the peasantry. I came to a neighbouring well,
at which four pair of bullocks were employed water-
ing the surrounding fields of wheat for the market,
and vegetables for the families of the cultivators.
Four men were employed at the well, and two more
in guiding the water to the little embanked squares
into which they divide their fields.
I soon discovered that the most intelligent of the
four was by caste a Jat ; and I had a good deal of
conversation with him as he stood landing the leather
buckets, as the two pair of bullocks on his side of
the well drew them to the top, a distance of forty
cubits from the surface of the water beneath.
"Who built this well?" I began.
" It was built by one of my ancestors, six gene-
rations ago."
" How much longer will it last ?"
" Ten generations more, I hope ; for it is now just
as good as when first made. It is of puckha bricks,
without mortar cement."
" How many waterings do you give ?"
" If there should be no rain, we shall require to
give the land six waterings, as the water is sweet ;
had it been brackish four would do. Brackish water
THE WELL. 179
is better for wheat than sweet water ; but it is not so
good for vegetables, or sugar-cane."
" How many beegas are watered from this well ?"
" We water twenty beegas, or one hundred and
five jureebs, from this well."
" And you pay the government how much ?"
" One hundred rupees, at the rate of five rupees
the beega. But only the five immediately around
the well are mine ; the rest belong to others."
" But the well belongs to you ; and I suppose you
get from the proprietors of the other fifteen, some-
thing for your water ?"
" Nothing. There is more water than I want for
my five beegas, and I give them what they require
gratis ; they acknowledge that it is a gift from me,
and that is all I want."
" And what does the land beyond the range of
your water of the same quality pay?"
" It pays at the rate of two rupees the beega ;
and it is with difficulty that they can be made to pay
that. Water, sir, is a great thing, and with that and
manure we get good crops from the land."
" How many returns of the seed ?"
" From these twenty beegas with six waterings,
and cross ploughing, and good manure, we contrive
to get twenty returns ; that is, if God is pleased with
us, and blesses our efforts."
" And you maintain your family comfortably out
of the return from your five ?"
" If they were mine I could ; but we had two or
N 2
180 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
three bad seasons seven years ago, and I was obliged
to borrow eighty rupees from our banker at twenty-
four per cent, for the subsistence of my family. I
have hardly been able to pay him the interest with
all I can earn by my labour, and I now serve him
upon two rupees a month."
" But that is not enough to maintain you and your
family?"
" No ; but he only requires my services for half the
day, and during the other half I work with others to
get enough for them."
"And when do you expect to pay off your debt?"
" God only knows : if I exert myself, and keep a
good neeut, (pure mind or intentions,) he will enable
me or my children to do so some day or other. In the
mean time, he has my five beegas of land in mort-
gage ; and I serve him in the cultivation."
" But under those misfortunes, you could surely
venture to demand something from the proprietors
of the other fifteen beegas for the water of your
well?"
" Never sir : it would be said all over the country,
that such an one sold God's water for his neighbour's
fields, and I should be ashamed to show my face !
Though poor, and obliged to work hard, and serve
others, I have still too much pride for that."
" How many bullocks are required for the tillage
of these twenty beegas watered from your well ?"
" These eight bullocks do all the work ; they are
dear now. This was purchased the other day on the
THE WELL. 181
death of the old one, for twenty-six rupees. They
cost about fifty rupees a pair — the late famine has
made them dear."
" What did the well cost in making ?"
" I have heard that it cost about one hundred
and twenty rupees ; it would cost about that sum to
make one of this kind in the present day, not more."
" How long have the families of your caste been
settled in these parts ?"
" About six or seven generations — the country
had before been occupied by a peasantry of the Kolar
caste. Our ancestors came, built up mud fortifica-
tions, dug wells, and brought the country into culti-
vation ; it had been reduced to a waste : for a long
time we were obliged to follow the plough with our
swords by our sides, and our friends around us with
their matchlocks in their hand, and their matches
lighted."
" Did the water in your well fail during the late
seasons of drought ?"
" No, sir ; the water of this well never fails."
** Then how did bad seasons affect you ?"
" My bullocks all died one after the other from
want of fodder, and I had not the means to till my
lands; subsistence became dear; and to maintain
my family, I was obliged to contract the debt for
which my lands are now mortgaged. I work hard
to get them back ; and if I do not succeed my chil-
dren will, I hope, with the blessing of God."
The next morning I went on to Kaka, fifteen
182 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
miles ; and finding my tents, people, and cattle with-
out a tree to shelter them, I was much pleased to
see in my neighbourhood, a plantation of mango and
other fruit trees. It had, I was told, been planted
only three years ago by Heeramun and Moteeram,
two bankers of the place, and I sent for them, know-
ing that they w^ould be pleased to have their good
work noticed by any European gentleman. The
trees are now covered with cones of thatch to shelter
them from the frost. The merchants came, evi-
dently much pleased, and I had a good deal of talk
with them.
" Who planted this new grove ?"
"We planted it three years ago."
"What did your well cost you, and how many
trees have you ?"
" We have about four hundred trees, and the well
has cost us two hundred rupees, and will cost us
two hundred more."
" How long will you require to water them ?"
" We shall require to water the mango and other
large trees ten or twelve years; but the orange,
pomegranate, and other small trees will always re-
quire watering."
" What quantity of ground do the trees occupy ?"
" They occupy twenty-two beegas of one hundred
and five jureebs. We place them all twelve yards
from each other — that is, the large trees ; and the
small ones we plant between them."
" How did you get the land ?"
THE GROVE. 183
" We were many years trying in vain to get a
grant from the government through the collector ;
at last we got him to certify on paper, that if the
landholder would give us land to plant our grove
upon, the government would have no objection.
We induced the landholder, who is a constituent of
ours, to grant us the land ; and we made our well
and planted our trees."
" You have done a good thing ; what reward do
you expect ?"
" We hope that those who may enjoy the shade,
the water, and the fruit, will think kindly of us when
we are gone. The names of the great men who
built the castles, palaces, and tombs at Delhi and
Agra have been almost all forgotten, because no one
enjoys any advantage from them ; but the names of
those who planted the few mango groves we see are
still remembered and blessed by all who eat of
their fruit, sit in their shade, and drink of their
water, from whatever part of the world they come.
Even the European gentlemen remember their names
with kindness ; indeed, it was at the suggestion of an
European gentleman, who was passing this place
many years ago, and talking with us as you are
now, that we commenced this grove. 'Look over
this plain,' said he ; 'it has been all denuded of the
fine groves with which it was, no doubt, once stud-
ded ; though it is tolerably well cultivated, the travel-
ler finds no shelter in it from the noonday sun —
even the birds seem to have deserted you, because
184 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
you refuse them the habitations they find in other
parts of India.' We told him that we would have
the grove planted, and we have done so ; and we
hope God will bless our undertaking."
" The difficulty of getting land is, I suppose, the
reason why more groves are not planted, now that
property is secure ?"
" How could men plant without feeling secure of the
land they planted upon, and when government would
not guarantee it ? The landholder could guarantee
it only during the five years of lease ; and if at the
end of that time government should transfer the lease
of the estate to another, the land of the grove would
be transferred with it. We plant not for worldly or
immediate profits, but for the benefit of our souls in
the next world — for the prayers of those who may
derive benefit from our works when we are gone.
Our landholders are good men, and will never resume
the lands they have given us ; and if the lands be
sold at auction by government, or transferred to
others, we hope the certificate of the collector will
protect us from his grasp."
" You like your present government, do you not ?"
" We like it much. There has never been a
government that gave so much security to life and
property : all we want is a little more of public
service, and a little more of trade ; but we have no
cause to complain ; it is our own fault if we are not
happy."
" But I have been told that the people find the
BENEFIT OF CLERGY. 185
returns from the soil diminishing, and attribute it to
the perjury that takes place in our courts occasi-
onally?"
" That, sir, is no doubt true : there has been a
manifest falling off in the returns ; and people every-
where think that you make too much use of the
Koran and the Ganges water in your courts. God
does not like to hear lies told upon one or other, and
we are apt to think that we are all punished for the
sins of those who tell them. May we ask, sir, what
office you hold ?"
" It is my office to do the work which God assigns
to me in this world."
" The work of God, sir, is the greatest of all
works ; and those are fortunate who are chosen to
do it !"
Their respect for me evidently increased when
they took me for a clergyman. I was dressed in
black.
" In the first place it is my duty to tell you, that
God does not punish the innocent for the guilty ; and
that the perjury in courts has nothing to do with
the diminution of returns from the soil. Where you
apply water and manure, and alternate your crops,
you always get good returns, do you not?"
" Very good returns ; but we have had several bad
seasons, that have carried away the greater part of
our population ; but a small portion of our lands can
be irrigated for want of wells, and we had no rain
for two or three years, or hardly any in due season ;
186 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and it was this deficiency of rain which the people
thought a chastisement from heaven."
" But the wells were not dried up, were they ?"
''No."
"And the people whose fields they watered had
good returns, and high prices for produce ?"
" Yes, they had ; but their cattle died for want of
food, for there was no grass anywhere to be found."
" Still they were better off than those who had no
wells to draw water from, for their fields ; and the
only way to provide against such evils in future is, to
have a well for every field. God has given you the
fields, and he has given you the water ; and when it
does not come from the clouds you must draw it
from your wells."
" True, sir, very true ; but the people are very
poor, and have not the means to form the wells they
require."
" And if they borrow the money from you, you
charge them what interest ?"
" From one to two per cent, a month according to
their character and circumstances ; but interest is
very often merely nominal, and we are in most cases
glad to get back the principal alone."
" And what security have you for the land of your
grove in case the landholder should change his mind ;
or die and leave sons not so well disposed ?"
" In the first place, we hold his bonds for a debt of
nine thousand rupees which he owes us, and which
we have no hopes of his ever paying. In the next,
THE DEED OF GIFT. 187
we have on stamped paper his deed of gift, in which
he declares, that he has given us the land ; and that
he and his heirs for ever shall be bound to make
good the rents, should government sell the estate for
arrears of revenue. We wanted him to write this
document in the regular form of a deed of sale ; but
he said that none of his ancestors had ever yet sold
their lands, and he would not be the first to disgrace
his family, or record their disgrace on stamped paper
— it should, he was resolved, be a deed of gift !"
" But of course you prevailed upon him to take
the price ?"
" Yes. We prevailed upon him to take two hun-
dred rupees for the land, and got his receipt for the
same ; indeed, it is so mentioned in the deed of gift ;
but still the landlord, who is a near relation of the
late chief of Hutras, would persist in having the
paper made out as a deed not of sale but of gift.
God knows whether, after all, our grove will be
secure — we must run the risk now^ we have begun
upon it."
188
CHAPTER XIII.
PUBLIC SPIRIT OF THE HINDOOS TREE CULTIVATION, AND
SUGGESTIONS FOR EXTENDING IT.
I may here be permitted to introduce, as something
germane to the matter of the foregoing chapter, a
KECOLLECTION of Jubbulpore, although we are now far
past that locality.
My tents are pitched where they have often before
been, on the verge of a very large and beautiful tank
in a fine grove of mango trees, and close by a hand-
some temple. There are more handsome temples
and buildings for accommodation on the other side
of the tank, but they are gone sadly out of repair.
The bank all round this noble tank is beautifully
ornamented by fine banyan and peepul trees, between
which and the waters edge intervene numerous
clusters of the graceful bamboo. These works were
formed about eighty years ago by a respectable
agricultural capitalist who resided at this place, and
died about twenty years after they were completed.
No relation of his can now be found in the district ;
EVIDENCE OF PUBLIC SPIRIT. 189
and not one in a thousand of those who drink of the
water or eat of the fruit, knows to whom he is in-
debted. There are round the place some beautiful
bowlies, or large wells with flights of stone steps from
the top to the water s edge, imbedded in clusters of
beautiful trees. They were formed about the same
time for the use of the public by men whose grand-
children have descended to the grade of cultivators
of the soil, or belted attendants upon the present
native collectors, without the means of repairing any
of the injury which time is inflicting upon these
magnificent works. Three or four young peepul
trees have begun to spread their delicate branches
and pale green leaves rustling in the breeze from
the dome of this fine temple, which these infant
Herculeses hold in their deadly grasp and doom to
inevitable destruction. Pigeons deposit the seeds of
the peepul tree, on which they chiefly feed, in the
crevices of buildings.
No Hindoo dares, and no Christian or Mahomedan
will condescend to lop off the heads of these young
trees, and if they did, it would only put off* the evil
and inevitable day ; for such are the vital powers of
their roots, when they have once penetrated deeply
into a building, that they will send out their branches
again, cut them off as often as you may, and carry on
their internal attack with undiminished vigour.
No wonder that superstition should have conse-
crated this tree, delicate and beautiful as it is, to the
gods. The palace, the castle, the temple, and the
190 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tomb, all those works which man is most proud to
raise, to spread and to perpetuate his name, crumble
to dust beneath her withering grasp. She rises
triumphant over them all in her lofty beauty, bear-
ing high in air amidst her light green foliage frag-
ments of the wreck she has made, to show the
nothingness of man's greatest efforts.
While sitting at my tent door looking out upon
this beautiful sheet of water, and upon all the noble
works around me, I thought of the charge, so often
made against the people of this fine land, of the total
want of public spirit among them, by those who have
spent their Indian days in the busy courts of law,
and still more busy commercial establishments of
our great metropolis.
If by the term public spirit be meant a disposition
on the part of individuals to sacrifice their own en-
joyments, or their own means of enjoyment for the
common good, there is perhaps no people in the
world among whom it abounds so much as among
the people of India. To live in the gratefiil recol-
lections of their countrymen for benefits conferred
upon them in great works of ornament and utility is
the study of every Hindoo of rank and property.
Such works tend, in his opinion, not only to spread
and perpetuate his name in this world, but, through
the good wishes and prayers of those who are bene-
fited by them, to secure the favour of the Deity in
the next.
According to their notions, every drop of rain
EVIDENCE OF PUBLIC SPIRIT. 191
water or dew that falls to the ground from the green
leaf of a fruit tree, planted by them for the common
good, proves a refreshing draught for their souls in
the next. When no descendant remains to pour the
funeral libation in their name, the water from the
trees they have planted for the public good is des-
tined to supply its place. Every thing judiciously
laid out to promote the happiness of their fellow
creatures will, in the next world, be repaid to them
tenfold by the Deity.
In marching over the country in the hot season,
we every morning find our tents pitched on the
green sward amid beautiful groves of fruit trees, with
wells of puckha (brick or stone) masonry, built at
great expense and containing the most delicious
water ; but how few of us ever dream of asking at
whose cost the trees that afford us and our followers
such agreeable shade, were planted, or the wells that
afford us such copious streams of fine water in the
midst of dry arid plains, were formed — we go on
enjoying all the advantages which arise from the
noble public spirit that animates the people of India
to benevolent exertions, without once calling in
question the truth of the assertion of our metro-
politan friends, that " the people of India have no
j)ublic spirit !"
Manmare, a respectable merchant of Mirzapore,
who traded chiefly in bringing cotton from the valley
of the Nerbudda and southern India, through Jubbul-
pore to Mirzapore, and in carrying back sugar and
8
192 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
spices in return, learning how much travellers on
this great road suffered from the want of water
near the Hilleea pass, under the Vindhya range of
hills, commenced a work to remedy the evil in 1822.
Not a drop of wholesome water was to be found
within ten miles of the bottom of the pass, where
the laden bullocks were obliged to rest during the
hot months, when the greatest thoroughfare always
took place. Manmare commenced a large tank and
garden, and had laid out about twenty thousand
rupees in the work, when he died. His son, Lulla
Manmare, completed the work soon after his father's
death, at a cost of eighty thousand rupees more, that
travellers might enjoy all the advantages that his
good old father had benevolently intended for them.
The tank is very large, always full of fine water even in
the dryest part of the dry season, with flights of steps
of cut freestone from the water's edge to the top all
round. A fine garden and shrubbery, with temples
and buildings for accommodations, are attached,
with an establishment of people to attend and keep
them in order.
All the country around this magnificent work was
a dreary solitude — there was not a human habi-
tation within many miles on any side. Tens of
thousands who passed this road every year were
blessing the name of the man who had created it
where it was so much wanted, when the new road
from the Nerbudda to Mirzapore was made by the
British government to descend some ten miles to
PUBLIC WORKS. 193
the north of it. As many miles were saved in the dis-
tance by the new cut, and the passage down made
comparatively easy at great cost, travellers forsook
the Hilleea road, and poor Manmare's work became
comparatively useless ! I brought the work to the
notice of Lord William Bentinck, who in passing
Mirzapore some time after, sent for the son, and
conferred upon him a rich dress of honour, of which
he has ever since been extremely proud.
Hundreds of works like this are undertaken every
year for the benefit of the public by benevolent and un-
ostentatious individuals, who look for their reward, not
in the applause of newspapers and public meetings,
but in the grateful prayers and good wishes of those
who are benefited by them ; and in the favour of
the Deity in the next world, for benefits conferred
upon his creatures in this.*
What the people of India want is not public spirit,
for no men in the world have more of it than the
Hindoos; but a disposition on the part of private
individuals to combine their efforts and means in
effecting great objects for the public good. With
* Within a few miles 'of Ghosulpore at the village of Tulwa,
which stands upon the old high road leading to Mirzapore, is a
still more magnificent tank with one of the most beautiful temples
in India, all executed two or three generations ago at the expense
of two or three lacks of rupees for the benefit of the public, by a
very worthy man, who became rich in the service of the former
government. His descendants, all save one, now follow the
plough ; and that one has a small rent-free \allage held on con-
dition of appropriating the rents to the repair of the tank.
VOL. II. O
194 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
this disposition they will be, in time, inspired under
our rule, when the enemies of all settled govern-
ments may permit us to divert a little of our intellect,
and our revenue, from the duties of war to those of
peace.
In the year 1829, while I held the civil charge of
the district of Jubbulpore, in this valley of the Ner-
budda, I caused an estimate to be made of the
public works of ornament and utility it contained.
The population of the district at that time amounted
to five hundred thousand souls, distributed among
four thousand and fifty-three occupied towns, villages,
and hamlets. There were one thousand villages
more which had formerly been occupied, but were
then deserted. There were two thousand two hun-
dred and eighty-eight tanks, two hundred and nine
bowlies, or large wells, with flights of steps extend-
ing from the top down to the water when in its
lowest stage ; fifteen hundred and sixty wells lined
with brick and stone, cemented with lime, but with-
out stairs ; three hundred and sixty Hindoo temples,
and twenty-two Mahomedan mosques. The esti-
mated cost of these works in grain at the present
price, that is the quantity that would have been con-
sumed, had the labour been paid in kind at the
present ordinary rate, was eighty-six lacks, sixty-six
thousand and forty-three rupees (86,66,043), £866,604
sterling.
The labourer was estimated to be paid at the
rate of about two- thirds the quantity of corn he
PUBLIC WORKS. 195
would get ill England if paid in kind, and corn
sells here at about one-third the price it fetches
in average seasons in England. In Europe, therefore,
these works, supposing the labour equally efficient,
would have cost at least four times the sum here
estimated ; and such works formed by private indi-
viduals for the public good, without any view what-
ever to return in profits, indicates a very high degree
oi public spirit.
The whole annual rent of the lands of this district
amounts to about six hundred and fifty thousand
rupees a year, ( £65,000 sterling, ) that is, five
hundred thousand demandable by the government,
and one hundred and fifty thousand by those who
hold the lands at lease immediately under govern-
ment, over and above what may be considered as the
profits of their stock as farmers. These works must,
therefore, have cost about thirteen times the amount
of the annual rent of the whole of the lands of the
districts — or the whole annual rent for above thirteen
years !
But I have not included the groves of mango and
tamarind, and other fine trees with which the district
abounds. Two-thirds of the towns and villages are
imbedded in fine groves of these trees, mixed with
the banyan* and the peepul.f I am sorry they were
not numbered ; but I should estimate them at three
* Ficus Indica.— H. H. S.
t Ficus Religiosa. — H. H.
o2
W6 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
thousand ; and the outlay upon a mango grove, is, on
an average, about four hundred rupees.
The groves of fruit-trees planted by individuals for
the use of the public, without any view to a return
in profit, would, in this district, according to this
estimate, have cost twelve lacks more, or about twice
the amount of the annual rent of the whole of the
lands. It should be remarked that the whole of
these works had been formed under former govern-
ments ; ours was established in the year 1817.
The Upper Dooab and the Delhi territories were
denuded of their trees in the wars that attended the
decline and fall of the Mahomedan empire, and the
rise and progrees of the Seikhs, Jats, and Mahrattas
in that quarter. These lawless freebooters soon
swept all the groves from the face of every
country they occupied with their troops, and they
never attempted to renew them or encourage the
renewal. We have not been much more sparing,
and the finest groves of fruit-trees have everywhere
been recklessly swept down by our barrack-masters
to furnish fuel for their brick-kilns ; and I am afraid
little or no encouragement is given for planting
others to supply their place in those parts of India
where they are most wanted.
We have a regulation, authorising the lessee of a
village to plant a grove in his grounds, but where
the settlements of the land revenue have been for
short periods, as in all Upper and Central India, this
PUBLIC WORKS. 197
authority is by no means sufficient to induce them
to invest their property in such works. It gives no
sufficient guarantee that the lessee for the next settle-
ment shall respect a grant made by his predecessors ;
and every grove of mango-trees requires outlay and
care for at least ten years. Though a man destines
the fruit, the shade, and the water for the use of the
l)ublic, he requires to feel, that it will be held for the
public in his name, and by his children and descend-
ants ; and never be exclusively appropriated by any
man in power for his own use.
If the lands were still to belong to the lessee of
the estate under government, and the trees only to
the planter and to his heirs, he to whom the land be-
longed might very soon render the property in the
trees of no value to the planter or his heirs.
If government wishes to have the Upper Dooab,
the Delhi, Mutra, and Agra districts again enriched
and embellished with mango groves, they will not
delay to convey this feeling to the hundreds, nay
thousands, who would be willing and anxious to plant
them upon a single guarantee, that the lands upon
which the trees stand shall be considered to belong
to them and their heirs as long as these trees stand
upon them. That the land, the shade, the fruit, and the
water will be left to the free enjoyment of the public,
we may take for granted, since the good which the
planter's soul is to derive from such a work in the
next world, must depend upon their being so ; and
all that is required to be stipulated in such grants is,
198 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
that mango, tamarind, peepul or bur trees, at the
rate of twenty-five the English acre, shall be planted
and kept up in every piece of land granted for the
purpose ; and that a well of pucka masonry shall be
made for the purpose of watering them in the smallest,
as well as in the largest piece of ground granted and
kept always in repair.
If the grantee fulfil the conditions, he ought, in
order to cover part of the expense, to be permitted
to till the land under the trees till they grow to
maturity and yield their fruit ; if he fails, the lands,
having been declared liable to resumption, should be
resumed. The person soliciting such grants should
be required to certify in his application, that he had
already obtained the sanction of the present lessee of
the village in which he wishes to have his grove, and
for this sanction he would of course have to pay the full
value of the land for the period of his lease. When
his lease expires, the land in which the grove is
planted would be excluded from the assessment ; and
when it is considered that every good grove must
cost the planter more than fifty times th^ annual
rent of the land, government may be satisfied, that
they secure the advantage to their people at a very
cheap rate !
Over and above the advantage of fruit, water, and
shade, for the public, these groves tend much to se-
cure the districts that are well studded with them,
from the dreadful calamities that, in India, always
attend upon deficient falls of rain in due seasons.
BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF GROVES. 109
They attract the clouds, and make them deposit
their stores in districts that would not otherwise be
blessed with them ; and hot and dry countries de-
nuded of their trees, and by that means deprived of
a great portion of that moisture to which they had
been accustomed, and which they require to support
vegetation, soon become dreary and arid wastes. The
lighter particles, which formed the richest portion of
their soil, blow off, and leave only the heavy arana-
ceous portion ; and hence, perhaps, those sandy
deserts, in which are often to be found the signs of
a population once very dense.
In the Mauritius, the rivers were found to be di-
minishing under the rapid disappearance of the woods
in the interior, when government had recourse to the
measure of preventing further depredations, and they
soon recovered their size.
The clouds brought up from the southern ocean
by the south-east trade- wind, are attracted, as they
pass over the island, by the forests in the interior,
and made to drop their stores in daily refreshing
showers. In many other parts of the world, govern-
ments have now become aware of this mysterious
provision of nature ; and have adopted measures to
take advantage of it for the benefit of the people ;
and the dreadful sufferings to which the people of
those of our districts, which have been the most de-
nuded of their trees, have been of late years exposed
from the want of rain in due season, may, perhaps,
induce our Indian government to turn its thoughts to
the subject.
200 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
The province of Malwa, which is bordered by
the Nerbudda on the south, Guzerat on the west,
Rajpootana on the north, and Allahabad on the
east, is said never to have been visited by a famine ;
and this exemption from so great a calamity, must
arise chiefly from its being so well studded with
hills and groves. The natives have a couplet, which,
like all good couplets on rural subjects, is attributed
to Sehdeo, one of the five demigod brothers of the
Mahabharut, to this effect — " If it does not thunder
on such a night, you, father, must go to Malwa
and I to Guzerat," meaning the rains will fail us
here, and we must go to those quarters where
they never fail.
201
CHAPTER XV.
CITIES AND TOWNS, FORMED BY PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS,
DISAPPEAR AS SOVEREIGNS AND GOVERNORS CHANGE
THEIR ABODES.
On the 17th and 18th, we went on twenty miles
to Pulwul, which stands upon an immense mound
in some places a hundred feet high, formed entirely
of the debris of old buildings. There are an im-
mense number of fine brick buildings in ruins ; but
not one of brick or st one at present inhabited. The
place was once evidently under the former govern-
ment the seat of some great public establishments,
which, with their followers and dependents, con-
stituted almost the entire population. The occasion
which keeps such establishments at a place no sooner
passes away, than the place is deserted and goes to
ruin as a matter of course. Such is the history of
Nineveh, Babylon, and all cities which have owed
their origin and support entirely to the public es-
202 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tablishments of the sovereign — any revolution that
changed the seat of government depopulated a city.
Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador of James the
1st of England to the court of Delhi, during the
reign of Jehangeer, passing through some of the old
capital cities of southern India, then deserted and in
ruins, writes to the Archbishop of Canterbury:
" T know not by what policy the Emperors seek the
ruin of all the ancient cities which were nobly built,
but now lie desolate and in rubbish. It must
arise from a wish to destroy all the ancient cities,
in order that there might appear nothing great
to have existed before their time." But these cities,
like all which are supported in the same manner, by
the residence of a court and its establishments,
become deserted as the seat of dominion is changed.
Nineveh, built by Ninus, out of the spoils he brought
back from the wide range of his conquests, continued
to be the residence of the court and the principal
seat of its military establishments for thirteen cen-
turies, to the reign of Sardanapalus. During the
whole of this time, it was the practice of the sove-
reigns to collect from all the provinces of the empire
their respective quotas of troops, and to canton them
within the city for one year, at the expiration of
which they were relieved by fresh troops. In the
last years of Sardanapalus, four provinces of the
empire. Media, Persia, Babylonia, and Arabia, are
said to have furnished a quota of four hundred
tliousand; and in the rebellion which closed his
DESERTED CITIES. 203
reign, these troops were often beaten by those from
the other provinces of the empire, which could not
have been much less in number. The successful
rebel, Arbaces, transferred the court and its appen-
dages to his own capital, and Nineveh became de-
serted ; and for more than eighteen centuries lost to
the civilized world.
Babylon in the same manner ; and Susa, Ecbatana,
Persepolis, and Seleucia all, one after the other,
became deserted as sovereigns changed their resi-
dence, and with it the seats of their public establish-
ments, which alone supported them. Thus Thebes
became deserted for Memphis, Memphis for Alex-
andria, and Alexandria for Cairo, as the sovereigns
of Egypt changed theirs ; and thus it has always
been in India, where cities have been almost all
founded on the same bases, the residence of princes
or governors, and their public establishments civil,
military, or ecclesiastical.
The city of Kunouj, on the Ganges, when con-
quered by Mahomed of Ghuznee, is stated by the
historians of the conqueror, to have contained a
standing army of five hundred thousand infantry,
with a due proportion of cavalry and elephants,
thirty thousand shops for the sale of pawns alone,
and sixty thousand families of opera girls. The
pawn dealers and opera girls were part and parcel
of the court and its public establishments, and as
much dependent upon the residence of the sovereign,
as the civil, military, and ecclesiastical officers who
204 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
ate their pawns, and enjoyed their dancing and
music ; and this great city no sooner ceased to be
the residence of the sovereign, the great proprietor
of all the lands in the country, than it became de-
serted.
After the establishment of the Mahomedan domi-
nion in India, almost all the Hindoo cities, within
the wide range of their conquest, became deserted as
the necessary consequence, as the military establish-
ments were all destroyed or disbanded, and the
religious establishments scattered, their lands con-
fiscated, their idols broken, and their temples either
reduced to ruins in the first ebullition of fanatical
zeal, or left deserted and neglected to decay from
want of those revenues by which alone they had
been or could be supported. The towns and cities
of the Roman empire, which owed their origin to
the same cause, the residence of governors and their
legions, or other public establishments, resisted similar
shocks with more endurance, because they had most
of them ceased to depend upon the causes in which
they originated, and begun to rest upon other bases.
When destroyed by wave after wave of barbarian
conquest, they were restored for the most part by the
residence of church dignitaries and their establish-
ments ; and the military establishments of the new
order of things, instead of remaining as standing
armies about the courts of princes, dispersed after
every campaign like militia, to enjoy the fruits of
the lands assigned for their maintenance, where
DESERTED CITIES. 205
alone they could be enjoyed in the rude state to
which society had been reduced, upon the lands
themselves.
For some time after the Mahomedan conquest of
India, that part of it which was brought effectually
under the new dominion, can hardly be considered to
have had more than one city with its dependent towns
and villages; because the Emperor chose to con-
centrate the greater part of his military establish-
ments around the seat of his residence ; and this
great city became deserted whenever he thought it
necessary or convenient to change that seat.
But when the Emperor began to govern his dis-
tant provinces by viceroys, he was obliged to con-
fide to them a share of his military establishments,
the only public establishments which a conqueror
thought it worth while to maintain ; and while they
moved about in their respective provinces, the im-
perial camp became fixed. The great officers of
state, enriched by the plunder of conquered provinces,
began to spend their wealth in the construction of
magnificent works for private pleasure or public
convenience. In time, the viceroys began to govern
their provinces by means of deputies, who moved
about their respective districts, and enabled their
masters, the viceroys of provinces, to convert their
camps into cities, which in magnificence often rivalled
that of the Emperor their master. The deputies
themselves in time found that they could govern
their respective districts from a central point ; and as
206 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
their camps became fixed in the chosen spots, towns
of considerable magnitude rose^ and sometimes
rivalled the capitals of the Viceroys. The Maho-
medans had always a greater taste for architectural
magnificence, as well in their private as in their
public edifices, than the Hindoos, who sought the
respect and good wishes of mankind through the
medium of groves and reservoirs diffused over the
country for their benefit. Whenever a Mahomedan
camp was converted into a town or city, almost all
the means of individuals were spent in the grati-
fication of this taste. Their wealth in money and
moveables would be, on their death, at the mercy of
their prince — their offices would be conferred on
strangers ; tombs and temples, canals, bridges, and
caravansaries, gratuitously for the public good, would
tend to propitiate the Deity, and conciliate the good
will of mankind, and might also tend to the advance-
ment of their children in the service of the sove-
reign. The towns and cities which rose upon the
sites of the standing camps of the governors of pro-
vinces and districts in India, were many of them as
much adorned by private and public edifices as those
which rose upon the standing camps of the Maho-
medan conquerors of Spain.
Standing camps converted into towns and cities, it
became in time necessary to fortify with walls against
surprise under any sudden ebullition among the con-
quered people ; and fortifications and strong garrisons
often suggested to the bold and ambitious governors
7
DESERTED CITIES. 207
of distant provinces, attempts to shake off the im-
perial yoke. That portion of the annual revenue,
which had hitherto flowed in copious streams of
tribute, to the distant imperial capital, was now
arrested, and made to augment the local establish-
ments, adorn the cities, and enrich the towns of the
Viceroys, now become the sovereigns of independent
kingdoms. The lieutenant-governors of these new
sovereigns, possessed of fortified towns, in their turn
often shook off the yoke of their masters in the same
manner, and became in their turn the independent
sovereigns of their respective districts. The whole
resources of the countries subject to their rule, being
employed to strengthen and improve their condition,
they soon became rich and powerful kingdoms,
adorned with splendid cities and populous towns,
since the public establishments of the sovereigns,
among whom all the revenues where expended, spent
all they received in the purchase of the produce
of the land and labour of the surrounding country,
which required no other market.
Thus the successful rebellion of one Viceroy con-
verted southern India into an independent king-
dom ; and the successful rebellion of his lieutenant-
governors in time divided it into four independent
kingdoms, each with a standing army of a hundred
thousand men, and adorned with towns and cities of
great strength and magnificence. But they continued
to depend upon the causes in which they originated —
the public establishments of the sovereign ; and when
208 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the Emperor Akbar and his successors, aided by
their own intestine wars, had conquered these sove-
reigns, and again reduced their kingdoms to tributary
provinces, almost all these cities and towns became
depopulated as the necessary consequence. The
public establishments were again moving about with
the courts and camps of the Emperor and his Vice-
roys ; and drawing in their train all those who found
employment and subsistence in contributing to their
efficiency and enjoyment. It was not as our am-
bassador, in the simplicity of his heart, supposed, the
disinclination of the Emperors to see any other
towns magnificent, save those in which they resided,
which destroyed them, but their ambition to reduce
all independent kingdoms to tributary provinces.
209
CHAPTER XVI.
MURDER OF MR. FRASER, AND EXECUTION OF THE NAWAB
SHUMSHOODEEN.
At Pulwul, Mr. Wilmot and Mr. Wright, who
had come on business, and Mr. Gubbins, breakfasted
and dined with us. They complained sadly of the
solitude to which they were condemned, but admitted
that they should not be able to get through half so
much business were they placed at a large station,
and exposed to all the temptations and distrac-
tions of a gay and extensive circle, nor feel the
same interest in their duties, or sympathy with
the people, as they do when thrown among them in
this manner. To give young men good feelings to-
wards the natives, the only good way is to throw
them among them at those out stations in the early
part of their career, when all their feelings are fresh
about them. This holds good, as well with the mili-
tary as the civil officer, but more especially with the
VOL. II. p
210 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
latter. A young officer at an outpost with his corps,
or part of it, for the first season or two, commonly
lays in a good store of feeling towards his men that
lasts him for life ; and a young gentleman of the
civil service lays in, in the same manner, a good store
of sympathy and fellow feeling with the natives in
general.
Mr. Gubbins is the magistrate and collector of
one of the three districts into which the Delhi terri-
tories are divided, and he has charge of Ferozepore,
the resumed estate of the late Nawab Shumshoodeen,
which yields a net revenue of about two hundred
thousand rupees a year. I have already stated that
this Nawab took good care that his Mewattee plun-
derers should not rob within his own estate ; but he
not only gave them free permission to rob over the
surrounding districts of our territories, but encou-
raged them to do so, that he might share in their
booty. He was a handsome young man, and an
extremely agreeable companion ; but a most unprin-
cipled and licentious character. No man who was
reputed to have a handsome wife or daughter was
for a moment safe within his territories. The fol-
lowing account of Mr. William Eraser's assassina-
tion by this Nawab, may, I think, be relied upon.
The Ferozepore Jageer was one of the principa-
lities created under the principle of Lord Cornwallis's
second administration, which was to make the secu-
rity of the British dominions dependent upon the divi-
sions among the independent native chiefs upon their
MURDER OF MR. FRASER. 211
frontiers. The person receiving the grant or confir-
mation of such principality from the British govern-
ment, " pledged himself to relinquish all claims to
aid ; and to maintain the peace in his own posses-
sions." Ferozepore was conferred by Lord Lake, in
1805, upon Ahmud Buksh, for his diplomatic ser-
vices, out of the territories acquired by us west of
the Jumna, during the Mahratta wars. He had been
the agent on the part of the Hindoo chiefs of Alwar,
in attendance upon Lord Lake during the whole of
that war. He was a great favourite ; and his lord-
ship's personal regard for him was thought by those
chiefs, to have been so favourable to their cause, that
they conferred upon him the Pergunnah of Loharo
in hereditary rent-free tenure.
In 1822, Ahmud Buksh declared Shumshoodeen,
his eldest son, his heir, with the sanction of the Bri-
tish government, and the Rajahs of Alwar. In
February 1825, Shumshoodeen, at the request of his
father, by a formal deed assigned over the Pergunnah
of Loharo, as a provision for his younger brothers,
by another mother, Ameenoodeen and Zeeoodeen ;*
and in October, 1826, he was finally invested by his
father with the management ; and the circumstance
was notified to the British government, through the
resident at Delhi, Sir Charles Metcalfe. Ahmud
Buksh died in October, 1827. Disputes soon after
* Ameenoodeen and Zeeoodeen' s mother was the Bhow
Begum, or wife ; Shumshoodeen' s the Bow Khunum, or mis-
tress.
p 2
212 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
arose between the brothers ; and they expressed a
desire to submit their claims to the arbitration of Sir
Edward Colebroke, who had succeeded Sir Charles
Metcalfe in the residency of Delhi. He referred the
matter to the supreme government ; and by their
instructions, under date 11th of April, 1828, he w^as
authorised to adjust the matter. He decided that
Shumshoodeen should make a complete and unen-
cumbered cession to his younger brothers of the
Pergunnah of Loharo, without the reservation of any
right of interference in the management, or of any
condition of obedience to himself whatever ; and that
Ameenoodeen should, till his younger brother came
of age, pay into the Delhi treasury for him the an-
nual sum of five thousand two hundred and ten
rupees, as his half share of the net proceeds, to be
there held in deposit for him ; and that the estate
should, from the time he came of age, be divided
between them in equal shares. This award was con-
firmed by government ; but Sir Edward was recom-
mended to alter it for an annual money payment to
the two younger brothers, if he could do so with the
consent of the parties.
The Pergunnah was transferred, as the money pay-
ment could not be agreed upon ; and in September,
Mr. Martin, who had succeeded Sir E. Colebrook, pro-
posed to government, that the Pergunnah of Loharo
should be restored to Shumshoodeen, in lieu of a
fixed sum of twenty-six thousand rupees a year, to
be paid by him annually to his two younger brothers.
MURDER OF MR. FRASER. 213
This proposal was made, on the ground that Amee-
noodeen could not collect the revenues from the re-
fractorj landholders, (instigated, no doubt, by the
emissaries of Shumshoodeen,) and, consequently,
could not pay his younger brother's revenue into the
treasury. In calculating the annual net revenue of
ten thousand four hundred and twenty rupees, fifteen
thousand of the gross revenue had been estimated as
the annual expenses of the mutual establishments of
the two brothers. To the arrangement proposed by
Mr. Martin, the younger brothers strongly objected ;
and proposed, in preference, to make over the Per-
gunnah to the British government, on condition of
receiving the net revenue, whatever might be the
amount. Mr. Martin was desired by the Governor-
general to effect this arrangement, should Ameenoo-
deen appear still to wish it ; but he preferred re-
taining the management of it in his own hands, in
the hope that circumstances would improve.
Shumshoodeen, however, pressed his claim to the
restoration of the Pergunnah so often, that it was at
last, in September, 1833, insisted upon by govern-
ment, on the ground that Ameenoodeen had failed
to fulfil that article of the agreement which bound
him to pay annually into the Delhi treasury, five
thousand two hundred and ten rupees for his younger
brother, though that brother had never complained ;
on the contrary, lived with him on the best possible
terms, and was as averse as himself to the retransfer
of the Pergunnah, on condition that they gave up
214 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
their claims to a large share of the moveable pro-
perty of their late father, which had been already de-
cided in their favour in the court of first instance.
Mr. W. Fraser, who had succeeded to the office of
Governor-generaFs representative in the Delhi terri-
tories, remonstrated strongly against this measure ;
and wished to bring it again under the consideration
of government, on the grounds that Zeeoodeen had
never made any complaint against his brother Amee-
noodeen, for want of punctuality in the payment of
his share of the net revenue after the payment of
their mutual establishments ; that the two brothers
would be deprived by this measure of an hereditary
estate to the value of sixty thousand rupees a year
in perpetuity, burthened with the condition, that
they relinquished a suit already gained in the court
of first instance, and likely to be gained in appeal,
involving a sum that would, of itself, yield them that
annual sum, at the moderate interest of six per cent.
The grounds alleged by him were not considered
valid ; and the Pergunnah was made over to Shum-
shoodeen. The Pergunnah now yields forty thou-
sand rupees a year, and under good management may
yield seventy thousand.
At Mr. Eraser's recommendation, Ameenoodeen
went himself to Calcutta, and is said to have pre-
vailed upon the government to take his case again
into their consideration. Shumshoodeen had become
a debauched and licentious character; and having
criminal jurisdiction within his own estate, no one's
MURDER OF MR. ERASER. 215
wife or daughter was considered safe ; for when other
means failed him, he did not scruple to employ assas-
sins to effect his hated purposes, by removing the
husband or father. Mr. Fraser became so disgusted
with his conduct, that he would not admit him into
his house when he came to Delhi, though he had, it
may be said, brought him up as a child of his own ;
indeed he had been as fond of him as he could be of
a child of his own ; and the boy used to spend the
greater part of his time with him. One day, after
Mr. Fraser had refused to admit the Nawab to his
house. Colonel Skinner, having some apprehensions
that by such slights he might be driven to seek re-
venge by assassination, is said to have remonstrated
with Mr. Fraser as his oldest and most valued friend.
Mr. Fraser told him that he considered the Nawab
to be still but a boy ; and the only way to improve
him was to treat him as such. It was, however,
more by these slights, than by any supposed injuries,
that Shumshoodeen was exasperated ; and from that
day he determined to have Mr. Fraser assassinated.
Having prevailed upon a man, Kureem Khan, who
was at once his servant and boon companion, he sent
him to Delhi with one of his carriages, which he was
to have sold through Mr. MTherson, an European
merchant of the city. He was ordered to stay there
ostensibly for the purpose of learning the process of
extracting copper from the fossil containing the
ore, and purchasing dogs for the Nawab. He was
to watch his opportunity, and shoot Mr. Fraser when-
216 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
ever he might find him out at night, attended by
only one or two orderlies ; to be in no haste, but to
wait till he found a favourable opportunity, though it
should be for several months. He had with him a
groom named Roopla, and a Mehwatee attendant
named Uneea, and they lodged in apartments of the
Nawab's at Durreowgunge. He rode out morning
and evening, attended by Uneea on foot, for three
months, during which time he often met Mr. Fraser,
but never under circumstances favourable to his pur-
pose ; and at last, in despair, returned to Ferozepore.
Uneea had importuned him for leave to go home to
see his children, who had been ill ; and Kureem Khan
did not like to remain without him. The Nawab
was displeased with him for returning without leave,
and ordered him to return to his post and effect the
object of his mission. Uneea declined to return,
and the Nawab recommended Kureem to take some-
body else, but he had, he said, explained all his de-
signs to this man, and it would be dangerous to
entrust the secret to another ; and he could, more-
over, rely entirely upon the courage of Uneea on any
trying occasion.
Twenty rupees were due to the treasury by Uneea,
on account of the rent of the little tenement he held
under the Nawab ; and the treasurer consented, at
the request of Kureem Khan, to receive this by
small instalments, to be deducted out of the monthly
wages he was to receive from him. He was, more-
over, assured that he should have nothing to do but
MURDER OP MR. ERASER. 217
to cook and eat; and should share liberally with
Kureem in the one hundred rupees he was taking
with him in money, and the letter of credit upon the
Nawab's bankers at Delhi, for one thousand rupees
more. The Nawab himself came with them as far
as the village of Nugeena, where he used to hunt ;
and there Kureem requested permission to change
his groom, as he thought Roopla too shrewd a man
for such a purpose. He wanted, he said, a stupid,
sleepy man, who would neither ask nor understand
anything ; but the Nawab told him that Roopla was
an old and quiet servant, upon whose fidelity he
could entirely rely ; and Kureem consented to take
him. Uneea's little tenement, upon which his wife
and children resided, was only two miles distant, and
he went to give instructions about gathering in the
harvest, and to take leave of them. He told his
wife that he was going to the capital on a difficult
and dangerous duty, but that his companion, Kureem,
would do it all no doubt. Uneea asked Kureem,
before they left Nugeena, what was to be his reward ;
and he told him that the Nawab had promised them
five villages in rent-free tenure. Uneea wished to
learn from the Nawab himself what he might ex-
pect ; and being taken to him by Kureem, was as-
sured that he and his family should be provided for
handsomely for the rest of their lives, if he did his
duty well on this occasion.
On reaching Delhi they took up their quarters
near Colonel Skinner's house, in the Bulvemar's
218 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Ward, where they resided for two months. The
Nawab had told Kureem to get a gun made for his
purpose at Delhi, or purchase one, stating that his
guns had all been purchased through Colonel Skin-
ner, and would lead to suspicion if seen in his posses-
sion. On reaching Delhi, Kureem purchased an old
gun, and desired Uneea to go to a certain man in the
Chandoree Choke, and get it made in the form of a
short blunderbuss, with a peculiar stock, that would
admit of its being concealed under a cloak ; and to
say that he was going to Gwalior to seek service, if
any one questioned him. The barrel was cut, and
the instrument made exactly as Kureem wished it to
be by the man whom he pointed out. They met
Mr. Fraser every day, but never at night ; and
Kureem expressed regret that the Nowab should
have so strictly enjoined him not to shoot him in
the day time, which he thought he might do without
much risk. Uneea got an attack of fever, and urged
Kureem to give up the attempt, and return home, or
at least permit him to do so. Kureem himself be-
came weary, and said he would do so very soon if he
could not succeed ; but that he should certainly shoot
some European gentleman before he set out, and tell
his master that he had taken him for Mr. Fraser, to
save appearances ! Uneea told him that this was a
question between him and his master, and no con-
cern of his.
At the expiration of two months, a j)eon came
to learn what they were doing. Kureem wrote a
MURDER OF MR. FRASER. 219
letter by him to the Nawab, saying, " that the dog he
wished was never to be seen without ten or twelve
people about him ; and that he saw no chance what-
ever of finding him, except in the midst of them ; but
that if he wished he would purchase this dog in the
midst of the crowd." The Nawab wrote a reply,
which was sent by a trooper, with orders that it
should be opened in presence of no one but Uneea.
The contents were — " I command you not to pur-
chase the dog in presence of many persons, as its price
will be greatly raised. You may purchase him be-
fore one person, or even two, but not before more.
I am in no hurry, the longer the time you take the
better; but do not return without purchasing the
dog'' That is, without killing Mr. Fraser !
They went on every day to watch Mr. Fraser's
movements. Leaving the horse with the groom,
sometimes in one old ruin of the city, and sometimes
in another, ready saddled for flight, with orders that
he should not be exposed to the view of passers by,
Kureem and Uneea used to pace the streets, and on
several occasions fell in with him, but always found
him attended by too many followers of one kind or
another for their purpose. At last, on Sunday, the
13th of March, 1835, Kureem heard that Mr. Fraser
was to attend a natch (dance) given by Hindoo Rao,
the brother of the Byza Bae, who then resided at
Delhi ; and determining to try whether he could not
shoot him from horseback, he sent away his groom
as soon as he had ascertained that Mr. Fraser was
220 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
actually at the dance. Uneea went in and mixed
among the assembly; and as soon as he saw Mr.
Fraser rise to depart, he gave intimation to Kureem,
who ordered him to keep behind, and make off as
fast as he could, as soon as he should hear the report
of his gun.
A little way from Hindoo Rao's house the road
branches off; that to the left is straight, while
that to the right is circuitous. Mr. Fraser was known
always to take the straight road, and upon that
Kureem posted himself, as the road up to the place
where it branched off was too public for his purpose.
As it happened, Mr. Fraser, for the first time, took
the circuitous road to the right, and reached his
home without meeting Kureem ! Uneea placed
himself at the cross way, and waited there till Kureem
came up to him. On hearing that he had taken the
right road, Kureem said, " that a man in Mr. Fraser's
situation must be a strange (Kafir) unbeliever not to
have such a thing as a torch with him in a dark night.
Had he had what he ought," he said, " I should not
have lost him this time !"
They passed him on the road somewhere or other
almost every afternoon after this for seven days ;
but could never fall in with him after dark. On the
eighth day, Sunday, the 22nd of March, Kureem
went as usual, in the forenoon, to the great Mosque,
to say his prayers ; and on his way back in the after-
noon, he purchased some plums, which he was eating
when he came up to Uneea, whom he found cooking
MURDER OF MR. FRASER. 221
his dinner. He ordered his horse to be saddled im-
mediately; and told Uneea to make haste and eat
his dinner, as he had seen Mr. Fraser at a party given
by the Rajah of Kishengurh. " When his time is come,''
said Kureem, " we shall no doubt find an opportunity
to kill him, if we watch him carefully." They left
the groom at home that evening, and proceeded to
the Durgah (church) near the canal. Seeing Uneea
with merely a stick in his hand, Kureem bid him go
back and change it for a sword, while he went in and
said his evening prayers.
On being rejoined by Uneea, they took the road to
cantonments, which passed by Mr. Fraser's house ;
and Uneea observed, " that the risk was hardly equal
in this undertaking, he being on foot, while Kureem
was on horseback : that he should be sure to be
taken, while the other might have a fair chance of
escape." It was now quite dark, and Kureem bid
him stand by sword in hand ; and if any body at-
tempted to seize his horse when he fired, cut him
down, and be assured, that while he had life he
would never suffer him, Uneea, to be taken. Kureem
continued to patrole up and down on the high road,
that noboby might notice him, while Uneea stood by
the road side. At last, about eleven o'clock, they
heard Mr. Fraser approach, attended by one trooper,
and two Peons, on foot; and Kureem walked his
horse slowly, as if he had been going from the city
to the cantonments, till Mr. Fraser came up within
a few paces of him, near the gate leading into his
222 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
house. Kureem Khan, on leaving his house, had put
one large ball into his short blunderbuss ; and when
confident that he should now have an opportunity of
shooting Mr. Fraser, he put in two more small ones.
As Mr. Eraser's horse was coming up on the left
side, Kureem Khan turned round his; and as he
passed by, presented his blunderbuss — fired — and all
three balls passed into Mr. Fraser's breast. All three
horses reared at the report and flash — and Mr. Fraser
fell dead on the ground. Kureem galloped off, followed
a short distance by the trooper, and the two Peons
went off and gave information to Major Pew and
Cornet Robinson, who resided near the place. They
came in all haste to the spot, and had the body taken
to the deceased's own house ; but no signs of life re-
mained. They reported the murder to the magis-
trate, and the city gates were closed, as the assassin
had been seen to enter the city by the trooper.
Uneea ran home through the Cabul gate of the
city, unperceived, while Kureem entered by the
Ajmere gate, and passed first through the encamp-
ment of Hindoo Rao, to efface the traces of his
horse's feet. When he reached their lodgings, he
found Uneea there before him; and Roopla, the
groom, seeing his horse in a sweat, told him that he
had had a narrow escape — that Mr. Fraser had been
killed, and orders given for the arrest of any horse-
man that might be found in or near the city. He
told him to hold his tongue, and take care of the
horse ; and calling for a light, he and Uneea tore up
MURDER OF MR. FRASER. 228
every letter he had received from Ferozepore, and
dipped the fragments in water, to efface the ink from
them. Uneea asked him what he had done with the
blunderbuss, and was told that it had been thrown
into a well. Uneea now concealed three flints that
he kept about him in some sand in the upper story
they occupied, and threw an iron ramrod, and two
spare bullets, into a well, near the mosque.
The next morning, when he heard that the city
gates had been all shut to prevent any one from going
out till strict search should be made, Kureem became
a good deal alarmed, and went to seek council from
Mogul Beg, the friend of his master ; but when in
the evening he heard that they had been again
opened, he recovered his spirits ; and the next day
he wrote a letter to the Nawab, saying that he had
purchased the dogs that he wanted, and would soon
return with them. He then went to Mr. M'Pherson,
and actually purchased from him, for the Nawab,
some dogs and pictures ; and the following day sent
Roopla, the groom, with them to Ferozepore, ac-
companied by two bearers. A pilgrim lodged in the
same place with these men, and was present when
Kureem came home from the murder, and gave his
horse to Roopla. In the evening, after the depar-
ture of Roopla with the dogs, four men of the Goojur
caste came to the place, and Kureem sat down and
smoked a pipe with one of them, who said that he
had lost his bread by Mr. Fraser's death, and should
be glad to see the murderer punished — that he was
10
224 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
known to have worn a green vest, and he hoped he
would soon be discovered. The pilgrim came up to
Kureem shortly after these four men went away ;
and said that he had heard from some one, that he,
Kureem, was himself suspected of the murder. He
went again to Mogul Beg, who told him not to be
alarmed, that, happily, the Regulations were now in
force in the Delhi territory, and that he had only to
stick steadily to one story to be safe !
He now desired Uneea to return to Ferozepore
with a letter to the Nawab, and to assure him that
he would be staunch and stick to one story, though
they should seize him and confine him in prison for
twelve years. " He had," he said, " already sent off
part of his clothes, and Uneea should now take away
the rest, so that nothing suspicious should be left
near him.
The next morning Uneea set out on foot, accom-
panied by IslamooUah, a servant of Mogul Beg's, who
was also the bearer of a letter to the Nawab. They
hired two ponies when they became tired, but both
flagged before they reached Nugeena, whence Uneea
proceeded to Ferozepore on a mare belonging to the
native collector, leaving IslamooUah behind. He
gave his letter to the Nawab, who desired him to
describe the affair of the murder. He did so. The
Nawab seemed very much pleased ; and asked whe-
ther Kureem appeared to be in any alarm. Uneea
told him that he did not ; and had resolved to stick
to one story, though he should be imprisoned for
MURDER OF MR. ERASER. 225
twelve years. " Kureem Khan," said the Nawab,
turning to the brother-in-law of the former, Wasil
Khan, and Hussun Alee, who stood near him —
" Kureem Khan is a very brave man, whose courage
may be always relied on !" He gave Uneea eighteen
rupees ; and told him to change his name, and keep
close to Wasil Khan. They retired together ; but
while Wasil Khan went to his house, Uneea stood on
the road unperceived, but near enough to hear Hussun
Alee urge the Nawab to have him put to death imme-
ately, as the only chance of keeping the fatal secret.
He went off immediately to Wasil Khan, and pre-
vailed upon him to give him leave to go home for
that night to see his family, promising to be back the
next morning early.
He set out forthwith ; but had not been long at
home when he learned that Hussun Alee, and ano-
ther confidential servant of the Nawab, were come
in search of him with some troopers. He concealed
himself in the roof of his house, and heard them ask
his wife and children where he was, saying they
wanted his aid in getting out some hyenas they had
traced into their dens in the neighbourhood. They
were told that he had gone back to Ferozepore, and
returned ; but were sent back by the Nawab to make
a more careful search for him. Before they came,
however, he had gone off to his friends Kumuroodeen
and Johuree, two brothers who resided in the Rao
Rajah's territory. To this place he was followed by
some Mehwaties, whom the Nawab had induced,
VOL. II. Q
226 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
under the promise of a large reward, to undertake to
kill him. One night he went to two acquaintances,
Mukram and Shahamut, in a neighbouring village,
and begged them to send to some English gentleman
at Delhi, and solicit for him a pardon, on condition
of his disclosing all the circumstances of Mr. Fraser's
murder. They promised to get everything done for
him through a friend in the police at Delhi, and set
out for that purpose, while Uneea returned and con-
cealed himself in the hills. In six days they came
with a paper, purporting to be a promise of pardon,
from the court of Delhi, and desired Kumurooden
to introduce them to Uneea. He told them to re-
turn to him in three days, and he would do so ; but
he went off to Uneea in the hills, and told him that
he did not think these men had really got the papers
from the English gentlemen — that they appeared to
him to be in the service of the Nawab himself!
Uneea was, however, introduced to them when they
came back, and requested that the paper might be
read to him. Seeing through their designs, he again
made off to the hills, while they went out in search,
as they pretended, of a man to read it, but, in reality,
to get some people who were waiting in the neigh-
bourhood to assist in securing him, and taking him
off to the Nawab.
Finding, on their return, that Uneea had escaped,
they offered high rewards to the two brothers if they
would assist in tracing him out ; and Johuree was
taken to the Nawab, who offered him a very high re-
MURDER OF MR. FRASER. 227
ward if he would bring Uneea to him, or at least
take measures to prevent his going to the English
gentlemen. This was communicated to Uneea, who
went through Bhurtpore to Bareilly, and from
Bareilly to Secundrabad, where he heard, in the be-
ginning of July, that both Kureem and the Nawab
were to be tried for the murder ; and that the judge,
Mr. Colvin, had already arrived at Delhi to conduct
the trial. He now determined to go to Delhi and
give himself up. On his way he was met by Mr.
Simon Eraser's man, who took him to Delhi, where
he confessed his share in the crime, became king's
evidence at the trial, and gave an interesting narra-
tive of the whole affair.
Two water carriers, in attempting to draw up the
brass jug of a carpenter, which had fallen into the
well the morning after the murder, pulled up the
blunderbuss which Kureem Khan had thrown into
the same well. This was afterwards recognised by
Uneea, and the man whom he pointed out as having
made it for him. Two of the four Goojurs, who
were mentioned as having visited Kureem imme-
diately after the murder, went to Brigadier Fast,
who commanded the troops at Delhi, fearing that the
native officers of the European civil functionaries
might be in the interest of the Nawab, and got them
made away with. They told him that Kureem Khan
seemed to answer the description of the man named
in the proclamation as the murderer of Mr. Eraser ;
and he sent them with a note to the commissioner
Q 2
228 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Mr. Metcalfe, who sent them to the magistrate, Mr.
Fraser, who accompanied them to the place and se-
cured Kureem, with some fragments of important
papers. The two Mahwaties, who had been sent to as-
sassinate Uneea, were found, and they confessed the
fact: the brother of Uneea, Rahmut, was found, and he
described the difficulty Uneea had to escape from the
Nawab's people sent to murder him. Roopla, the
groom, deposed to all that he had seen during the time
he was employed as Kureem's groom at Delhi. Se-
veral men deposed to having met Kureem, and heard
him asking after Mr. Fraser a few days before the
murder. The two peons who were with Mr. Fraser
when he was shot, deposed to the horse which he
rode at the time, and which was found with him.
Kureem Khan and the Nawab were both con-
victed of the crime, sentenced to death, and executed
at Delhi. I should mention that suspicion had im-
mediately attached to Kureem Khan ; he was known
for some time to have been lurking about Delhi, on
the pretence of purchasing dogs ; and it was said that
had the Nawab really wanted dogs, he would not
have sent to purchase them by a man whom he ad-
mitted to his table, and treated on terms of equality.
He was suspected of having been employed on such
occasions before — known to be a good shot, and a good
rider, who could fire and reload very quickly while
his horse was in full gallop, and called in conse-
quence the Bharmaroo. His horse, which was found
in the stable by the Goojur spies, who had before
EXECUTION OF THE MURDERERS. 229
been in Mr. Eraser's service, answered the descrip-
tion given of the murderer's horse by Mr. Eraser's
attendants; and the Nawab was known to cherish
feelings of bitter hatred against Mr. Fraser.
The Nawab was executed some time after Kureem,
on Thursday morning, the 3rd of October, 1835,
close outside the north, or Cashmere Gate, leading
to the cantonments. He prepared himself for the
execution in an extremely rich and beautiful dress
of light green, the colours which martyrs wear ; but
he was made to exchange this, and he then chose
one of simple white, and was too conscious of his
guilt to urge strongly his claim to wear what dress
he liked on such an occasion.
The following corps were drawn up around the
gallows, forming three sides of a square : the first
regiment of cavalry, the twentieth, thirty-ninth, and
sixty-ninth regiments of native infantry; Major
Pew's light field battery, and a strong party of police.
On ascending the scaffold, the Nawab manifested
symptoms of disgust at the approach to his person of
the sweeper, who was to put the rope round his neck ;
but he soon mastered his feelings, and submitted
with a good grace to his fate. Just as he expired
his body made a last turn, and left his face towards
the west, or the tomb of his prophet, which the Ma-
homedans of Delhi considered a miracle, indicating
that he was a martyr — not as being innocent of the
murder, but as being executed for the murder of an
unbeliever ! Pilgrimages were for some time made
230 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to the Nawab's tomb ; but I believe they have long
since ceased with the short gleam of sympathy that
his fate excited. The only people that still recollect
him with feelings of kindness are the prostitutes
and dancing women of the city of Delhi, among
whom most of his revenues were squandered. In
the same manner was Wuzeer Alee recollected for
many years by the prostitutes and dancing women of
Benares, after the massacre of Mr. Cherry and all
the European gentlemen of that station, save one,
Mr. Davis, who bravely defended himself, wife, and
children, against a host, with a hog spear, on the top
of his house. No European could pass Benares
for twenty years after Wuzeer Alee's arrest and con-
finement in the garrison of Fort William, without
hearing from the windows songs in his praise, and in
praise of the massacre.
It is supposed that the Nawab, Tyz Mahomed
Khan, of Ghujper, was deeply implicated in this
murder, though no proof of it could be found. He
died soon after the execution of Shumshoodeen ; and
was succeeded in his fief by his eldest son, Tyz Alee
Khan. This fief was bestowed on the father of the
deceased, whose name was Nijabut Alee Khan, by
Lord Lake, on the termination of the war in 1805,
for the aid he had given to the retreating army under
Colonel Monson.
One circumstance attending the execution of the
Nawab Shumshoodeen, seems w^orthy of remark. The
magistrate, Mr. Frascott, desired his crier to go
EXECUTION OF THE MURDERERS. 231
through the city the evening before the execution,
and proclaim to the people, that those who might
wish to be present at the execution were not to en-
croach upon the line of sentries that would be formed
to keep clear an allotted space round the gallows —
nor to carry with them any kind of arms ; but the
crier, seemingly retaining in his recollection only the
words arms and sentries, gave out, after his 0 yes,
0 yes, that the sentries had orders to use their arms,
and shoot any man, woman, or child that should pre-
sume to go outside the wall to look at the execution
of the Nawab ! No person, in consequence, ventured
out till the execution was over, when they went to
see the Nawab himself converted into smoke ; as the
general impression was, that as life should leave it,
the body was to be blown off into the air by a general
discharge of musketry and artillery! Mogul Beg
was acquitted for want of judicial proof of his guilty
participation in the crime.
232
CHAPTER XVII.
MARRIAGE OF A JAT CHIEF.
On the 19th, we came on to Balumgur, fifteen
miles over a plain, better cultivated and more studded
with trees than that which we had been coming over
for many days before. The water was nearer the
surface — more of the fields were irrigated ; and those
which were not so, looked better; range of sand-
stone hills, ten miles off to the west, running north
and south. Bulumgur is held in rent-free tenure,
by a young Jat chief, now about ten years of age.
He resides in a mud fort, in a handsome palace
built in the European fashion. In an extensive
orange garden, close outside the fort, he is building
a very handsome tomb over the spot where his
father's elder brother was buried. The whole is
formed of white and black marble, and the fine white
sandstone of Roopbass, and so well conceived and
executed as to make it evident, that demand is the
only thing wanting to cover India with works of art
equal to any that were formed in the palmy days of
SEIKHS AND JATS. 233
the Mahomedan empire. The Rajah's young sister
had just been married to the son of the Jat chief of
Naba, who was accompanied in his matrimonial visit
(berat) by the chief of Ludora, and the son of the
Seikh chief of Puteeaiee, with a cortege of one hun-
dred elephants, and above fifteen thousand people.*
* The Seikh is a military nation formed out of the Jdts, (who
were without a place among the castes of the Hindoos,) by
that strong bond of union, the love of conquest and plunder.
Their religious and civil codes are the Goorunts, books written
by their reputed prophets, the last of whom was Gooroo Govind,
in whose name Runjeet Sing stamps his gold coins with this
legend. " The sword, the pot victory, and conquest, were quickly
found in the grace of Gooroo Govind Sing." This prophet died
insane in the end of the seventeenth century. He was the son
of a priest, Teg Bahadur, who was made a martyr of by the
bigoted Mahomedans of Patna, in 1675. The son became a
Peter the hermit, in the same manner as Hergovind before him,
when his father, the prophet Arjunmul, was made a martyr by
the fanaticism of the same people. A few more such martyrdoms
would have set the Seikhs up for ever. They admit converts
freely, and while they have a fair prospect of conquest and plun-
der they will find them ; but when they cease they will be
swallowed up in the great ocean of Hindooism, since they have
no chance of getting up " an army of martyrs" while we have
the supreme power. They detest us for the same reason that
the military followers of the other native chiefs detest us, because
we say, " thus far shall you go and no farther," in your career of
conquest and plunder. As governors, they are even worse than
the Mahrattas — utterly detestable. They have not the slightest
idea of a duty towards the people from whose industry they are
provided. Such a thing was never dreamed of by a Seikh. They
continue to receive in marriage the daughters of Jats, as in this
case ; but they will not give their daughters in marriage to
Jats.
234 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
The young chief of Balumgur mustered a cortege of
sixty elephants, and about ten thousand men, to
attend him out in the Istaekbal,^ to meet and welcome
his guests. The bridegroom's party had to expend
about six hundred thousand rupees in this visit alone.
They scattered copper money all along the road
from their homes to within seven miles of Balumgur.
From this point to the gate of the fort they had to
scatter silver ; and from this gate to the door of the
palace they scattered gold and jewels of all kinds.
The son of the Puteealee chief, a lad of about ten
years of age, sat upon his elephant with a bag con-
taining six hundred gold mohurs, of two guineas each,
mixed up with an infinite variety of gold earrings,
pearls, and precious stones, which he scattered in
handfuls among the crowd. The scattering of the
copper and silver had been left to inferior hands.
The costs of the family of the bride are always much
greater than that of the bridegroom. They are
obliged to entertain, at their own expense, all the
bridegroom's guests as well as their own, as long as
they remain ; and over and above this, on the present
occasion, the Rajah gave a rupee to every person
that came, invited or uninvited. An immense con-
course of people had assembled to share in this dona-
tion, and to scramble for the money scattered along
the road ; and ready money enough was not found in
the treasury. Before a further supply could be got,
thirty thousand more had collected, and every one
got his rupee. They have them all put into pens
JAT MARRIAGE. 236
like sheep. When all are in, the doors are opened
at a signal given, and every person is paid his rupee
as he goes out. Some European gentlemen were
standing upon the top of the Rajah's palace, looking
at the procession as it entered the fort, and passed
underneath ; and the young chief threw up some
handfuls of pearls, gold, and jewels among them.
Not one of them would of course condescend to stoop
to take up any ; but their servants showed none of
the same dignified forbearance.
236
CHAPTER XVIIL
COLLEGIATE ENDOWMENT OF MAHOMEDAN TOMBS AND
MOSQUES.
On the 20th, we came to Budderpore, twelve
miles over a plain, with the range of hills on our left
approaching nearer and nearer the road, and sepa-
rating us from the old city of Delhi. We passed
through Tureedpore, once a large town, and called
after its founder, Sheikh Turreed, whose mosque is
still in good order, though there is no person to read
or hear prayers in it. We passed also two fine
bridges, one of three and one of four arches, both
over what were once streams, but are now dry beds
of sand. The whole road shows signs of having
been once thickly peopled, and highly adorned with
useful and ornamental works when Delhi was in its
glory. Every handsome mausoleum among Maho-
medans was provided with its mosque, and endowed
by the founder with the means of maintaining men
of learning, to read their Koran over the grave of
TOMBS AND MOSQUES. 237
the deceased and in his chapel ; and as long as the
endowment lasted, the tomb continued to be at the
same time a college. They read the Quoran morning
and evening over the grave, and prayers in the
chapel at the stated periods ; and the rest of their
time is commonly devoted to the instruction of the
youths of their neighbourhood, either gratis or for a
small consideration. Apartments in the tomb were
usually set aside for the purpose ; and these tombs
did ten times more for education in Hindoostan,
than all the colleges formed especially for the pur-
pose. We might suppose, that rulers who formed
and endowed such works all over the land, must
have had more of the respect and the affections of
the great mass of the people than we, who, as my
friend upon the Jumna has it, " build nothing but
private dwelling-houses, factories, courts of justice,
and jails," can ever have ; but this conclusion would
not be altogether just. Though every mosque and
mausoleum was a seat of learning, that learning,
instead of being a source of attraction and concili-
ation between the Mahomedans and Hindoos, was,
on the contrary, a source of perpetual repulsion and
discord between them — it tended to keep alive in
the breasts of the Mussulmans a strong feeling of
religious indignation against the worshippers of idols ;
and of dread and hatred in those of the Hindoos.
The Quoran was the book of books, spoken by God to
the angel Gabriel, in parts as occasion required, and
repeated by him to Mahomed ; who, unable to write
238 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
himself, dictated them to any one who happened to
be present when he received the divine communi-
cations ;* it contained all that it was worth man's
while to study or know — it was from the Deity, but
at the same time coeternal with him — it was his
divine eternal spirit, inseparable from him from the
beginning, and, therefore, like him, uncreated. This
book, to read which was of itself declared to be the
highest of all species of worship, taught war against
the worshippers of idols, to be of all merits the great-
est in the eye of God ; and no man could well rise
from the perusal without the wish to serve God by
some act of outrage against them. These buildings
were, therefore, looked upon by the Hindoos, who
composed the great mass of the people, as a kind of
religious volcanos, always ready to explode, and
pour out their lava of intolerance and outrage upon
the innocent people of the surrounding country.
If a Hindoo fancied himself injured or insulted by
a Mahomedan, he was apt to revenge himself upon
the Mahomedans generally, and insult their religion
* Mahomed is said to have received these communications in
all situations ; sometimes while riding along the road on his camel,
he became suddenly red in the face, and greatly agitated ; he
made his camel sit down immediately, and called for some one to
write. His rhapsodies were all written at the time on leaves and
thrown into a box. Gabriel is believed to have made him repeat
over the whole once every year during the month of Ramzan. On
the year he died, Mahomed told his followers, that the angel had
made him repeat them over twice that year, and that he was
sure he would not live to receive another visit !
RELIGIOUS PROCESSIONS. 239
by throwing swine's flesh, or swine's blood, into one of
their tombs or churches ; and the latter either flew
to arms at once to avenge their God, or retaliated by
throwing the flesh or the blood of the cow into the first
Hindoo temple at hand, which made the Hindoos
fly to arms. The guilty and the wicked commonly
escaped, while numbers of the weak, the innocent,
and the unoffending were slaughtered. The magni-
ficent buildings, therefore, instead of being at the
time bonds of union, were commonly sources of the
greatest discord among the whole community, and of
the most painful humiliation to the Hindoo popula-
tion. During the bigoted reign of Ourungzebe and
his successors, a Hindoo's presence was hardly tole-
rated within sight of these tombs or churches ; and
had he been discovered entering one of them, he
would probably have been hunted down like a mad
dog. The recollection of such outrages, and the humi-
liations to which they gave rise, associated as they
always are in the minds of the Hindoos with the
sight of these buildings, are perhaps the greatest
source of our strength in India ; because they at the
same time feel, that it is to us alone they owe the
protection which they now enjoy from similar in-
juries. Many of my countrymen, full of virtuous
indignation at the outrages which often occur
during the processions of the Mohorum, particularly
when these happen to take place at the same time
with some religious procession of the Hindoos, are
very anxious that our government should interpose
6
240 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
its authority to put down botli. But these proces-
sions and occasional outrages are really sources of
great strength to us ; they show at once the neces-
sity for the interposition of an impartial tribunal,
and a disposition on the part of the rulers to inter-
pose impartially. The Mahomedan festivals are re-
gulated by the lunar, and those of the Hindoos by
the solar year; and they cross each other every
thirty or forty years, and furnish fair occasions for
the local authorities to interpose effectually. People
who receive or imagine insults or injuries, commonly
postpone their revenge till these religious festivals
come round, when they hope to be able to settle
their accounts with impunity among the excited
crowd. The mournful procession of the Mohurum,
when the Mahomedans are inflamed to madness by
the recollection of the really affecting incidents of the
massacre of the grandchildren of their prophet, and
by the images of their tombs, and their sombre music,
crosses that of the Hoolee, in which the Hindoos are
excited to tumultuous and licentious joy by their bac-
chanalian songs and dances every thirty-six years ; and
they reign together for some four or ^Ye days, during
which the scene, in every large town, is really terrific.
The processions are liable to meet in the street, and
the lees of the wine of the Hindoos, or the red
powder which is substituted for them, is liable to fall
upon the tombs of the others. Hindoos pass on,
forgetting in their saturnalian joy, all distinctions
of age, sex, or religion, their clothes and persons
RELIGIOUS PROCESSIONS. 241
besmeared with the red powder, which is moistened
and thrown from all kinds of machines over friend
and foe ; while meeting these come the Mahomedans,
clothed in their green mourning, with gloomy down-
cast looks, beating their breasts, ready to kill them-
selves, and too anxious for an excuse to kill anybody
else. Let but one drop of the lees of joy fall upon
the image of the tomb as it passes, and a hundred
swords fly from their scabbards ; many an innocent
person falls ; and woe be to the town in which the
magistrate is not at hand with his police and military
force. Proudly conscious of their power, the magis-
trates refuse to prohibit one class from laughing
because the other happens to be weeping ; and the
Hindoos, on such occasions, laugh the more heartily
to let the world see that they are free to do so.
A very learned Hindoo once told me in central
India, that the oracle of Mahadeo had been, at the
same time, consulted at three of his greatest temples —
one in the Deccan, one in Rajpootana, and one
I think in Bengal — as to the result of the govern-
ment of India by Europeans, who seemed determined
to fill all the high offices of administration with their
own countrymen, to the exclusion of the people of
the country. A day was appointed for the answer ;
and when the priest came to receive it, they found
Mahadeo (Sewa) himself, with an European com-
plexion, and dressed in European clothes ! He told
them, " that their European government was in
reality nothing more than a multiplied incarnation
VOL. II. R
242 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of himself; and that he had come among them in
this shape, to prevent their cutting each other's
throats as they had been doing for some centuries
past ; that these, his incarnations, appeared to have
no religion themselves, in order that they might be
the more impartial arbitrators, between the people
of so many different creeds and sects, who now in-
habited the country ; that they must be aware that
they never had before been so impartially governed,
and that they must continue to obey these their
governors, without attempting to pry further into
futurity or the will of their gods." Mahadeo per-
forms a part in the great drama of the Ramaen, or
the rape of Seeta ; and he is the only figure there
that is represented with a white face I
I was one day praising the law of primogeniture
among ourselves, to a Mahomedan gentleman of high
rank ; and defending it on the ground, that it pre-
vented that rivalry and bitterness of feeling among
brothers, which were always found among the
Mahomedans, whose law prescribes an equal division
of property, real and personal, among the sons, and
the choice of the wisest among them as successor to
the government. " This," said he, " is no doubt the
source of our weakness ; but why should you condemn
a law which is to you a source of so much strength ?
I one day," said he, " asked Mr. Seaton, the Gover-
nor-general's representative at the court of Delhi,
which of all things he had seen in India he liked
best ? ' You have,' replied he smiling, ' a small species
THE BEST THING IN INDIA. 243
of melon called pJioot, (disunion,) this is the thing we
like best in your land.' There was," continued my
Mahomedan friend, " an infinite deal of sound poli-
tical wisdom in this one sentence. Mr. Seaton was
a very good, and a very wise man — our European
governors of the present day are not at all the same
kind of thing. I asked Mr. B., a judge, the same
question many years afterwards, and he told us that
he thought the rupees were the best things he had
found in India. I asked Mr. T., the commissioner,
and he told me that he thought the tobacco which he
smoked in his hookah was the best thing. And pray
sir, what do you think the best thing ?"
" Why, Nawab Sahib, I am always very well
pleased when I am free from pain, and can get my
nostrils full of cool air, and my mouth full of cold
water in this hot land of yours ; and I think most of
my countrymen are the same. Next to these, the
thing we all admire most in India, Nawab Sahib, is
the entire exemption which you, and I, and every
other gentleman, native or European, enjoy from the
taxes which press so heavily upon them in other
countries. In Cashmere, no midwife is allowed to
attend a woman in her confinement till a heavy tax
has been paid to Runjeet Sing for the infant ; and
in England, a man cannot let the light of heaven
into his house till he has paid a tax for the window."
" Nor keep a dog, or shoot a partridge in the jungle,
I am told," said the Nawab.
" Quite true, Nawab Sahib."'
R 2
244 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" Hindoostan, sir," said he, " is after all the best
country in the world; the only thing wanted is a
little more (roozgar) employment for the educated
classes under government."
" True, Nawab Sahib, we might, no doubt, greatly
multiply this employment to the advantage of those
who got the places, but we should have to multiply at
the same time the taxes, to the great disadvantage
of those who did not get them."
" True, very true, sir," said my old friend.
245
CHAPTER XIX.
THE OLD CITY OF DELHI.
On the 21st, we went on eight miles to the Kootub
Meenar, across the range of sandstone hills, which
rise to the height of about two hundred feet, and
run north and south. The rocks are for the most
part naked, but here and there the soil between
them is covered withfamished grass, and a few stunted
shrubs ; anything more unprepossessing can hardly
be conceived than the aspect of these hills, which
seem to serve no other purpose than to store up
heat for the people of the great city of Delhi. We
passed through a cut in this range of hills, made
apparently by the stream of the river eTumna at some
remote period, and about one hundred yards wide at
the entrance. This cut is crossed by an enormous
stone wall, running north and south, and intended to
shut in the waters, and form a lake in the opening
beyond it. Along the brow of the precipice, over-
looking the northern end of the wall, is the stupen-
246 RAMBL-ES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
dous fort of TugJiluckabad, built by the Emperor Tugh-
luck the 1st, of the sandstones of the range of hills
on which it stands, cut into enormous square blocks.
On the brow of the opposite side of the precipice,
overlooking the southern end of the wall, stands the
fort of Mohumdabad, built by this Emperors son
and successor, Mahomed, and resembling in all things
that built by his father. These fortresses over-
looked the lake, with the old city of Delhi spread
out on the opposite side of it to the west. There is
a third fortress upon an isolated hill, east of the
great barrier wall, said to have been built in honour
of his master by the Emperor Tughluck's barber.
The Emperor s tomb stands upon an isolated rock
in the middle of the once lake, now plain, about a
mile to the west of the barrier wall. The rock is
connected with the western extremity of the north-
em fortress, by a causeway of twenty-five arches, and
about one hundred and fifty yards long. This is a
fine tomb, and contains in a square centre room the
remains of the Emperor Tughluck, his wife, and his
son. The tomb is built of red sandstone, and sur-
mounted by a dome of white marble. The three
graves inside are built of brick, covered with stucco
work.
The outer sides of the tomb slope slightly in-
wards from the base, in the form of a pyramid ; but
the inner walls are of course perpendicular. The
impression left on the mind after going over the
ruins of these stupendous fortifications is, that the
THE KOOTUB MEENAR. 247
arts which contribute to the comforts and elegancies
of life, must have been in a very rude state when
they were raised. Domestic architecture must have
been wretched in the extreme. The buildings are
all of stone, and almost all without cement, and seem
to have been raised by giants, and for giants whose
arms were against everybody and everybody's arm
against them. This was indeed the state of the
Patau sovereigns in India — they were the creatures
of their armies ; and their armies were always em-
ployed against the people, who feared and detested
them all.
The Emperor Tughluck, on his return at the
head of the army, which he had led into Bengal
to chastise some rebellious subjects, was met at
Afghanpore by his eldest son Jonah, whom he had
left in the government of the capital. The prince
had in three days raised here a palace of wood for a
grand entertainment to do honour to his father's
return ; and when the Emperor signified his wish to
retire, all the courtiers rushed out before him to be
in attendance, and among the rest, Jonah himself.
Five attendants only remained when the Emperor
rose from his seat ; and at that moment the building
fell in and crushed them and their master ! Jonah
had been sent at the head of an army into the
Deccan where he collected immense wealth from
the plunder of the palaces of princes and the temples
of their priests, the only places in which much wealth
was to be found in those days. This wealth he
248 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tried to conceal from his father, whose death he pro-
bably thus contrived, that he might the sooner have
the free enjoyment of it with unlimited power. Only
thirty years before, Allaooddeen, returning in the
same manner at the head of an army from the
Deccan loaded with wealth, murdered the Emperor
Feroze the 2nd, the father of his wife, and ascended
the throne. Jonah ascended the throne under the
name of Mahomed the 3rd ; and after the remains of
his father had been deposited in the tomb I have
described, he passed in great pomp and splendour
from the fortress of Tughluckabad, which his father
had just then completed, to the city in which the
Meenar stands, with elephants before and behind
loaded with gold and silver coins, which were scat-
tered among the crowd, who everywhere hailed him
with shouts of joy ! The roads were covered with
flowers, the houses adorned with the richest stuff's,
and the streets resounded with music !
He was a man of great learning, and a great patron
of learned men ; he was a great founder of churches,
had prayers read in them all at the prescribed times,
and always went to prayers five times a day himself^
* A Mahomedan must, if he can, say his prayers with the
prescribed forms five times in the twenty-four hours ; and on
Friday, which is their sabbath, he must, if he can, say these
prayers in the church -musjid. On other days he may say them
where he pleases. Every prayer must begin with the first chap-
ter of the Koran — this is the grace to every prayer. This said,
the person may put' in what other prayers of the Koran he pleases.
THE KOOTUB MEENAR. 249
He was rigidly temperate himself in his habits, and
discouraged all intemperance in others. These things
secured him panegyrists throughout the empire
during the twenty-seven years that he reigned over
it ; though perhaps he was the most detestable
tyrant that ever filled a throne. He would take his
armies out over the most populous and peaceful dis-
tricts, and hunt down the innocent and unoffending
people like wild beasts, and bring home their heads
by thousands to hang them on the city gates for his
mere amusement ! He twice made the whole people
of the city of Delhi emigrate with him to Dowlu-
tabad, in southern India, which he wished to make
the capital, from some foolish fancy ; and during the
whole of his reign, gave evident signs of being in an
unsound state of mind !
There was, at the time of his father's death, a saint
at Delhi, named Nizamoodeen Ouleea, or the saint,
who was supposed by supernatural means to have
driven from Delhi, one night in a panic, a large army
of Moguls under Turmachurn, who invaded India
from Transoxiana, in 1303, and laid close siege to the
city of Delhi, in which the Emperor Allaooddeen
and ask for that which he most wants as long as it does not
injure other Mussulmans. This is the first chapter of the Koran :
"Praise be to God the Lord of all creatures— the most merciful
— the king of the day of judgment. Thee do we worship ; and
of thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right way — in the
way of those to whom thou hast been gracious ; not of those
against whom thou art incensed, nor of those who go astray."
250 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
was shut up without troops to defend himself, his
armies being engaged in southern India. It is very
likely that he did strike this army with a panic by
getting some of their leaders assassinated in one
night. He was supposed to have the " dust ol ^liyK'
or supernatural purse, as his private expenditure is
said to have been more lavish even than that of the
Emperor himself, while he had no ostensible source
of income whatever. The Emperor was either
jealous of his influence and display, or suspected him
of dark crimes, and threatened to humble him when
he returned to Delhi. As he approached the city,
the friends of the saint, knowing the resolute spirit
of the Emperor, urged him to quit the capital, as he
had been often heard to say, "Let me but reach
Delhi, and this proud priest shall be humbled !"
The only reply that the saint would ever deign to
give from the time the imperial army left Bengal,
till it was within one stage of the capital, was " Delhi
door ust." Delhi is still far off! This is now be-
come a proverb over the east, equivalent to our,
" there is many a slip between the cup and the lip."
It is probable, that the saint had some understand-
ing with the son in his plans for the murder of his
father ; it is possible, that his numerous wandering
disciples may in reality have been murderers and
robbers ; and that he could at any time have pro-
cured through them the assassination of the Emperor.
The Mahomedan Thugs, or assassins of India, cer-
tainly looked upon him as one of the great founders
THE KOOTUB MEENAR. 251
of their system ; and used to make pilgrimages to
his tomb as such ; and as he came originally from
Persia, and is considered by his greatest admirers
to have been in his youth a robber, it is not alto-
gether impossible that he may have been originally
one of the assassins or disciples of the " old man of
the mountains ;" and that he may have set up the
system of Thuggee in India, and derived a great
portion of his income from it. Emperors now pros-
trate themselves and aspire to have their bones
placed near it. While wandering about the ruins,
I remarked to one of the learned men of the place
who attended us, that it was singular Tughluck's
buildings should be so rude compared with those of
Yulteemush, who had reigned more than eighty years
before him. '• Not at all singular," said he ; " was
he not under the curse of the holy saint Nizamood-
een ?" " And what had the Emperor done to incur the
holy man's curse ?" " He had taken by force to em-
ploy upon his palaces, several of the masons whom
the holy man was employing upon a church^' said he.
The Kootub Meenar was, I think, more beyond
my expectations than the Taj ; first, because I had
heard less of it ; and secondly, because it stands as it
were alone in India — there is absolutely no other
tower in this Indian empire of ours. Large pillars
have been cut out of single stones, and raised in
different parts of India to commemorate the con-
quests of Hindoo princes, whose names no one was
able to discover for several centuries, till an un-
252 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
pretending English gentleman of surprising talents
and industry, Mr. James Prinsep, lately brought
them to light by mastering the obsolete characters
in which they and their deeds had been inscribed
upon them. These pillars would, however, be
utterly insignificant were they composed of many
stones. The knowledge that they are cut out of
single stones, brought from a distant mountain, and
raised by the united efforts of multitudes when the
mechanical arts were in a rude state, makes us still
view them with admiration. But the single majesty
of this Meenar of Kootubooddeen, so grandly con-
ceived, so beautifully proportioned, so chastely em-
bellished, and so exquisitely finished, fills the mind
of the spectator with emotions of wonder and delight ;
without any such aid, he feels that it is among the
towers of the earth, what the Taj is among the
tombs — something unique of its kind that must ever
stand alone in his recollections.
It is said to have taken forty-four years in build-
ing, and formed the left of two Meenars of a mosque.
The other Meenar was never raised, but this has
been preserved and repaired by the liberality of the
British government. It is only two hundred and
forty-two feet high, and one hundred and six feet in
circumference at the base. It is circular, and fluted
vertically into twenty-seven semicircular and angular
divisions. There are four balconies supported upon
large stone brackets, and surrounded with battle-
ments of richly cut stone, to enable people to walk
THE KOOTUB kfiENAR. 253
round the tower with safety. The first is ninety
feet from the base, the second fifty feet further up,
the third forty feet further ; and the fourth twenty-
four feet above the third. Up to the third balcony,
the tower is built of fine but somewhat ferruginous
sandstone, whose surface has become red from ex-
posure to the oxygen of the atmosphere. Up to the
first balcony, the fiutings are alternately semicircular
and angular : in the second story they are all semi-
circular, and in the third all angular. From the
third balcony to the top, the building is composed
chiefly of white marble ; and the surface is without
the deep fiutings. Around the first story there are
five horizontal belts of passages from the Koran,
engraved in bold relief, and in the Kufic character.
In the second story there are four, and in the third
three. The ascent is by a spiral staircase within,
of three hundred and eighty steps ; and there are
passages from this staircase to the balconies, with
others here and there for the admission of light and
air.
A foolish notion has prevailed among some people,
overfond of paradox, that this tower is in reality a
Hindoo building, and not, as commonly supposed, a
Mahomedan one. Never was paradox supported
upon more frail, I might say, absurd foundations.
They are these — 1st, that there is only one Meenar,
whereas there ought to have been two — had the un-
finished one been intended as the second, it would
not have been, as it really is, larger than the first ;
254 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
2nd, that other Meenars seen in the present day
either do not slope inward, from the base up, at all,
or do not slope so much as this. I tried to trace the
origin of this paradox, and I think I found it in a
silly old Moonshee in the service of the Emperor.
He told me that he believed it was built by a former
Hindoo prince for his daughter, who wished to wor-
ship the rising sun, and view the waters of the Jumna
from the top of it every morning.
There is no other Hindoo building in India at all
like, or of the same kind as this ; the ribbons or
belts of passages from the Koran are all in relief,
and had they not been originally inserted as they are,
the whole surface of the building must have been
cut down to throw them out in bold relief The
slope is the peculiar characteristic of all the archi-
tecture of the Pythans, by whom the church to which
this tower belongs was built. Nearly all the arches
of the church are still standing in a more or less
perfect state, and all correspond in design, propor-
tion, and execution, to the tower. The ruins of the
old Hindoo temples about the place, and about every
other place in India, are totally different in all three ;
here they are all exceedingly paltry and insignificant,
compared with the church and its tower, and it is
evident, that it was the intention of the founder to
make them appear so to future generations of the
faithful, for he has taken care to make his own great
work support rather than destroy them, that they
might for ever tend to enhance its grandeur.
THE KOOTUB MEENAR. 255
It is sufficiently clear that the unfinished Meenar
was commenced first, upon too large a scale, and
with too small a diminution of the circumference
from the base upwards. It is two-fifths larger than
the finished tower in circumference, and much more
perpendicular. Finding these errors when they had
got some thirty feet from the foundation, the founder,
Shumshoodeen, began the work anew, and had he
lived a little longer, there is no doubt that he would
have raised the second tower in its proper place,
upon the same scale as the one completed. His
death was followed by several successive revolutions ;
five sovereigns succeeded each other on the throne
of Delhi in ten years. As usual on such occasions,
works of peace were suspended ; and succeeding so-
vereigns sought renown in military enterprises rather
than in building churches. This church was entire,
with the exception of the second Meenar, when
Tamerlane invaded India. He took back a model
of it with him to Samarcund, together with all the
masons he could find at Delhi, and is said to have
built a church upon the same plan at that place, be-
fore he set out for the invasion of Syria.
The west face of the quadrangle, in which the
tower stands, formed the church, which consisted of
eleven large arched alcoves, the centre and largest of
which contained the pulpit. In size and beauty
they seem to have corresponded with the Meenar ;
but they are now all in ruins. In the front of the
centre of these alcoves stands the metal pillar of the
256 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
old Hindoo sovereign of Delhi, Prethee Raj, across
whose temple all the great mosque, of which this
tower forms a part, was thrown in triumph. The
ruins of these temples lie scattered all round the
place ; and consist of colonnades of stone pillars and
pedestals, richly enough carved with human figures,
in attitudes rudely and obscenely conceived. The
small pillar is of bronze, or a metal which resembles
bronze, and is softer than brass, and of the same form
precisely as that of the stone pillar at Erun, on the
Beena river in Malwa, upon which stands the figure
of Krishna, with the glory around his head. It is
said that this metal pillar was put down through the
earth, so as to rest upon the very head of the snake
that supports the world ; and that the sovereign who
made it, and fixed it upon so firm a basis, was told
by his spiritual advisers, that his dynasty should last
as long as the pillar remained where it was. Anxious
to see that the pillar was really where the priests
supposed it to be, that his posterity might be quite
sure of their position, Prethee Raj had it taken up,
and he found the blood and some of tlie flesh of the
snake's head adhering to the bottom. By this means
the charm was broken, and the priests told him that
he had destroyed all the hopes of his house by his
want of faith in their assurances. I have never met
a Hindoo that doubted either that the pillar was
really upon this snake's head, or that the King lost
his crown by his want oi faith in the assurance of
7
THE SNAKE-ATLAS. 257
his priests ! They all believe that the pillar is still
stuck into the head of the great snake, and that no
human efforts of the present day could remove it.
On my way back to my tents, I asked the old Hindoo
officer of my guard, who had gone with me to see
the metal pillar, " What he thought of the story of
the pillar?"
" What the people relate about this Khillee (pillar)
having been stuck into the head of the snake that
supports the world, sir, is nothing more than a simple
Jiistorical fact known to everybody. Is it not so, my
brothers ?" said he, turning to the Hindoo sepahees
and followers around us, who all declared that no
fact could ever be better established !
" When the Rajah," continued the old soldier,
" had got the pillar fast into the head of the snake,
he was told by his chief priest that his dynasty
must now reign over Hindoostan for ever. ' But,'
said the Rajah, * as all seems to depend upon the
pillar being on the head of the snake, we had better
see that it is so with our own eyes.' He ordered it
to be taken up ; the clergy tried to dissuade him, but
all in vain. Up it was taken — the flesh and the blood
of the snake were found upon it — the pillar was re-
placed; but a voice was heard saying — 'Thy want
of faith hath destroyed thee — thy reign must soon
end, and with it that of thy race.' "
I asked the old soldier from whence the voice
came.
VOL. II. s
258 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
He said this was a point that had not, he be-
lieved, been quite settled. Some thought it was
from the serpent himself below the earth — others
that it came from the high priest, or some of his
clergy ! " Wherever it came from," said the old
man, " there is no doubt that God decreed the
Rajah's fall for his want of faith ; and fall he did
soon after."
All our followers concurred in this opinion, and
the old man seemed quite delighted to think that he
had had an opportunity of delivering his sentiments
upon so great a question before so respectable an
audience.
The Emperor Shumshodeen Altumsh is said to
have designed this great Mahomedan church at the
suggestion of Khojah Kootubooddeen, a Mahomedan
saint from Ouse, in Persia, who was his religious
guide and apostle — and died some sixteen years be-
fore him. His tomb is among the ruins of this old
city. Pilgrims visit 'it from all parts of India, and
go away persuaded that they shall have all they have
asked, provided they have given or promised liberally
in a pure spirit of faith in his influence with the
Deity. The tomb of the saint is covered with gold
brocade, and protected by an awning — those of the
Emperors around it lie naked and exposed. Em-
perors and princes in abundance lie all around him ;
and their tombs are entirely disregarded by the hun-
dreds that daily prostrate themselves before his, and
THE PRESENT MOGUL. 259
have been doing so for the last six hundred years.
Among the rest I saw here the tomb of Mouzzim,
alias Bahadur Shah, the son and successor of
Ourungzebe, and that of the blind old Emperor Shah
Alum, from whom the honourable Company got their
Dewanee grant. The grass grows upon the slab that
covers the remains of Mouzzim — the most leamedj
most pious, and most amiable, I believe, of the
crowned descendants of the great Akbar. These
kings and princes all try to get a place as near as
they can to the remains of such old saints, believing
that the ground is more holy than any other, and
that they may give them a lift on the day of resur-
rection ! The heir apparent to the throne of Delhi
visited the tomb the same day that I did.* He was
between sixty and seventy years of age. I asked
some of the attendants of the tomb, on my way back,
what he had come to pray for ; and was told that
no one knew, but every one supposed it was for the
death of the Emperor, his father, who was only fifteen
years older, and was busily engaged in promoting an
intrigue at the instigation of one of his wives, to
oust him, and get one of her sons, Mirza Saleem,
acknowledged as his successor by the British govern-
ment. It was the Hindoo festival of the Busunt,
and all the avenues to the tomb of this old saint
were crowded when I visited it. Why the Maho-
* He is now Emperor, having succeeded his father, Akbar
Shah, in 1837.
S 2
260 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
medans crowded to the tomb on a Hindoo holiday I
could not ascertain.
The Emperor Altumsh, who died a. d. 1 235, is
buried close behind one end of the arched alcove,
in a beautiful tomb without its cupola. He built the
tomb himself, and left orders that there should be
no purdah (screen) between him and heaven ; and no
dome was thrown over the building in consequence.
Other great men have done the same, and their tombs
look as if their domes had fallen in ; they think the
way should be left clear for a start on the day of re-
surrection. The church is stated to have been added
to it by the Emperor Baleen, and the Meenar finished.
About the end of the seventeenth century it was so
shaken by an earthquake, that the two upper stories
fell down. Our government, when the country came
into our possession, undertook to repair these two
stories, and entrusted the work to Captain Smith,
who built up one of stone, and the other of wood, and
completed the repairs in three years. The one was
struck by lightning eight or nine years after, and
came down. If it was anything like the one that is
left, the lightning did well to remove it. About five
years ago, while the Emperor was on a visit to the
tomb of Kootubooddeen, a madman got into his private
apartments. The servants were ordered to turn him
out. On passing the Meenar he ran in, ascended to
the top, stood a few moments on the verge, laughing
at those who were running after him, and made a
FATAL SACRILEGE. 261
spring that enabled him to reach the bottom, with-
out touching the sides. An eye-witness told me that
he kept his erect position till about half-way down,
when he turned over, and continued to turn till he
got to the bottom, where his fall made a report like
a gun. He was of course dashed to pieces. About
five months ago another fell over by accident, and
was dashed to pieces against the sides. A new
road has been here cut through the tomb of the
Emperor Allaooddeen, who murdered his father-
in-law — the first Mahomedan conqueror of southern
India, and his remains have been scattered to the
winds.
A very pretty marble tomb, to the west of the
alcoves, covers the remains of Imam Mushudee, the
religious guide of the Emperor Akbar ; and a mag-
nificent tomb of freestone covers those of one of his
four foster brothers. This was long occupied as a
dwelling-house by the late Mr. Blake, of the Bengal
civil service, who was lately barbarously murdered at
Jeypoor. To make room for his dining-tables he
removed the marble slab, which covered the remains
of the dead, from the centre of the building, against
the urgent remonstrance of the people, and threw it
carelessly on one side against the wall, where it now
lies. The people appealed in vain, it is said, to Mr.
Eraser, the Governor-general's representative, who
was soon after assassinated ; and a good many attri-
bute the death of both to this outrage upon the re-
mains of the dead foster-brother of Akbar. Those
262 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of Allaoodeen were, no doubt, older and less sen-
sitive. Tombs equally magnificent cover the re-
mains of the other three foster-brothers of Akbar,
but I did not enter them.
263
CHAPTER XX.
NEW DELHI, OR SHAHJEHANABAD.
On the 22nd of January, 1836, we went on twelve
miles to the new city Delhi, built by the Emperor
Shah J eh an, and called after him Shahjehanabad ;
and took up our quarters in the palace of the Begum
Sumroo, a fine building, agreeably situated in a
garden opening into the great street, with a branch
of the great canal running through it, and as quiet
as if it had been in a wilderness. We had obtained
from the Begum permission to occupy this palace
during our stay. It was elegantly furnished, the ser-
vants were all exceedingly attentive, and we were
very happy.
The Kootub Meenar stands upon the back of the
sandstone range of low hills, and the road descends
over the north-eastern face of this range for half a
mile, and then passes over a level plain all the way
to the new city, which lies on the right bank of the
264 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
river Jumna. The whole plain is literally covered
with the remains of splendid Mahomedan mosques
and mausoleums. These Mahomedans seem as if
they had always in their thoughts the saying of
Christ, which Akbar has inscribed on the gateway
at Futtehpore Secree, " Life is a bridge which you
are to pass over, and not to build your dwellings
upon." The buildings which they have left behind
them have almost all a reference to a future state —
they laid out their means in a church, in which the
Deity might be propitiated ; in a tomb where learned
and pious men might chant their Koran over their
remains, and youth be instructed in their duties ; in
a saraes, a bridge, a canal built gratuitously for
the public good, that those who enjoyed their ad-
vantages from generation to generation might pray
for the repose of their souls. How could it be other-
wise, where the land was the property of govern-
ment, where capital was never concentrated or safe,
w^here the only aristocracy was that of office, while
the Emperor was the sole recognised heir of all his
public officers. The only things that he could not
inherit, were his tombs, his temples, his bridges, his
canals, and his caravansaries. I was acquainted with
the history of most of the great men whose tombs
and temples I visited along the road ; but I asked
in vain for a sight of the palaces they occupied in
their day of pride and powder. They all had, no
doubt, good houses agreeably situated, like that of
the Begum Sumroo, in the midst of well-watered
ARISTOCRACY. 266
gardens and shrubberies, delightful in their season ;
but they cared less about them — they knew that the
Emperor was heir to every member of the great
body to which they belonged, the aristocracy of
office; and might transfer all their wealth to his
treasury, and all their palaces to his successors, the
moment the breath should be out of their bodies.
If their sons got office, it would neither be in the
same grades, nor in the same places as those of their
fathers.
How different it is in Europe where our aristo-
cracy is formed upon a different basis ; no one knows
where to find the tombs in which the remains of
great men who have passed away, repose ; or the
churches and colleges they have founded ; or the
saraes, the bridges, the canals they formed gra-
tuitously for the public good ; but everybody knows
where to find their " proud palaces" — " life is not to
them a bridge over which they are to pass, and not
build their dwellings upon !" The eldest sons enjoy
all the patrimonial estates ; and employ them as
best they may to get their younger brothers into
situations in the church, the army, the navy, and
other public establishments, in which they may be
honourably and liberally provided for out of the
public purse.
About half way between the great tower and the
new city, on the left-hand side of the road, stands the
tomb of Munsoor Ally Khan, the great grandfather
of the present King of Oude. Of all the tombs to
266 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
be seen in this immense extent of splendid ruins,
this is perhaps the only one raised over a subject, the
family of whose inmates are now in a condition even
to keep it in repair. It is a very beautiful mauso-
leum, built after the model of the Taj at Agra; with
this difference, that the external wall around the
quadrangle of the Taj is here, as it were, thrown
back, and closed in upon the tomb. The beautiful
gateway at the entrance of the gardens of the Taj
forms each of the four sides of the tomb of Munsoor
Ally Khan, with all its chaste beauty of design, pro-
portion, and ornament. The quadrangle in which
this mausoleum stands is about three hundred and
fifty yards square, surrounded by a stone wall, with
handsome gateways, and filled in the same manner
as that of the Taj at Agra, with cisterns and fruit-
trees. Three kinds of stones are used, — white
marble, red sandstone, and the fine white and flesh-
coloured sandstone of Roopbas. The dome is of
white marble, and exactly of the same form as that
of the Taj ; but it stands on a neck or base of sand-
stone, with twelve sides, and the white marble is of
a quality very inferior to that of the Taj. It is of
coarse dolomite, and has become a good deal dis-
coloured by time, so as to give it the appearance
which Bishop Heber noticed, of potted meat. The
neck is not quite so long as that of the Taj, and is
better covered by the marble cupolas that stand above
each face of the building. The four noble minarets
are however wanting. The apartments are all in
5
TOMB OF NIZAMOODEEN. 267
number and form exactly like those of the Taj, but
they are somewhat less in size. In the centre of the
first floor lies the beautiful marble slab that bears the
date of this smaW pillar of a tottering state, a. D. 1167;
and in a vault underneath, repose his remains, by the
side of those of one of his grand-daughters. The
graves that cover these remains are of plain earth,
strewed with fresh flowers, and covered with plain
cloth. About two miles from this tomb to the east
stands that of the father of Akbar, Hoomaeeoon, a
large and magnificent building. As I rode towards this
building to see the slab tliat covers the head of poor
Dara Shekoh, I frequently cast a lingering look be-
hind, to view, as often as I could, this very pretty
imitation of the most beautiful of all the tombs of
the earth.
On my way I turned in to see the tomb of the
celebrated saint, Nizamoodeen Ouleea, the defeater
of the Transoxianian army under Turmachum, in
1303, to which pilgrimages are still made from all
parts of India.* It is a small building, surmounted
by a white marble dome, and kept very clean and
neat. By its side is that of the poet Khusroo, his
contemporary and friend, who moved about where
he pleased through the palace of the Emperor
* Nizamoodeen was the disciple of Furreedoodeen Gunj
Shukur, so called from his look being sufficient to convert clods
of earth into lumps of sugar. Furreed was the disciple of
Kootubooddeen, of old Delhi, who was the disciple of Moenoodeen,
of Ajmere — the greatest of all their saints.
268 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Tughluck Shah the First, five hundred years ago,
and sang, extempore, to his lyre, while the greatest
and the fairest watched his lips to catch the expres-
sions as they came warm from his soul. His popular
songs are still the most popular ; and he is one of
the favoured few who live through ages in the every-
day thoughts and feelings of many millions, while
the crowned heads that patronized them in their
brief day of pomp and power are forgotten, or re-
membered merely as they happened to be connected
with them. His tomb has also a dome, and the
grave is covered with rich brocade, and attended
with as much reverence and devotion as that of the
great saint himself, while those of the emperors,
kings, and princes, that have been crowded around
them, are entirely disregarded. A number of people
are employed to read the Koran over the grave of
the old saint, who died a. h. 725, and are paid by con-
tributions from the present Emperor, and the mem-
bers of his family, who occasionally come in their
hour of need, to entreat his intercession with the
Deity in their favour, and by the humble pilgrims
who flock from all parts for the same purpose. A
great many boys are here educated by these readers
of their sacred volume. All my attendants bowed
their heads to the dust before the shrine of the
saint, but they seemed especially indifferent to those
of the royal family, which are all open to the sky.
Respect shown or neglected towards them could
bring neither good nor evil ; while any slight to the
A ROYAL DRUNKARD. 269
toml) of the crusty old mint might be of serious con-
sequence !
In an enclosure formed by marble screens, beauti-
fully carved, is the tomb of the favourite son of the
present Emperor, Mirza Juhangeer, vrhom I knew
intimately at Allahabad, in 1816, when he was kill-
ing himself as fast as he could with Hoffman's cherry
brandy. " This," he would say to me, " is really the
only liquor that you Englishmen have worth drink-
ing ; and its only fault is that it makes one drunk
too soon !" To prolong his pleasure, he used to
limit himself to one large glass every hour, till he
got dead drunk. Two or three sets of dancing
women and musicians used to relieve each other in
amusing him during this interval. He died of course
soon, and the poor old Emperor was persuaded by
his mother, the favourite sultana, that he had fallen
a victim to sigJiing and grief at the treatment of the
English, who would not permit him to remain at
Delhi, where he was continually employed in attempts
to assassinate his eldest brother, the heir apparent,
and to stir up insurrections among the people. He
was not in confinement at Allahabad, but merely pro-
hibited from returning to Delhi. He had a splendid
dwelling, a good income, and all the honours due to
his rank.
In another enclosure of the same kind, are the
Emperor Mahomed Shah — who reigned when Nadir
Shah invaded Delhi — his mother, wife, and daughter ;
and in another, close by, is the tomb which interested
270 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
me most — that of Jelianara Begum, the favourite
sister of poor Dara Shekoh, and daughter of Shah
Jehan. It stands in the same enclosure, with the
brother of the present Emperor on one side, and his
daughter on the other. Her remains are covered
with a marble slab hollow at the top, and exposed
to the sky — the hollow is filled with earth covered
with green grass. Upon her tomb is the following
inscription, the three first lines of which are said to
have been written by herself.
" Let no rich canopy cover my grave. This grass
is the best covering for the tombs of the poor in
spirit. The humble, the transitory Jehanara, the
disciple of the holy men of Christ, the daughter of
the Emperor Shah Jehan."
I went over the magnificent tomb of Hoomaeeoon,
which was raised over his remains by his son the
Emperor Akbar. It stands in the centre of a qua-
drangle of about four hundred yards square, with a
cloistered wall all round ; but I must not describe
any more tombs. Here, under a marble slab, lies
the head of poor Dara Shekoh, who but for a little
infirmity of temper had, perhaps, changed the desti-
nies of India, by changing the character of education
among the aristocracy of the countries under his
rule, and preventing the birth of the Mahratta
powers, by leaving untouched the independent king-
doms of the Deccan, upon whose ruins, under his bigot-
ed brother, the former rose. Secular and religious
education were always inseparably combined among
PRINCE DARA. 271
the Mahomedans, and invited to India from Persia
by the public offices, civil and military, which men
of education and courtly manners could alone ob-
tain. These offices had long been filled exclusively
by such men, who flocked in crowds to India from
Khorassan and Persia. Every man qualified by se-
cular instruction to make his way at court, and fill
such offices, was disposed by his religious instruction
to assert the supremacy of his creed, and to exclude
the followers of every other from the employments
over which he had any control. The aristocracy of
office was the ocean to which this stream of Ma-
homedan education flowed from the west, and spread
all over India ; and had Dara subdued his brothers,
and ascended the throne, he would probably have
arrested the flood by closing the public offices
against these Persian adventurers, and filling them
with Christians and Hindoos. This would have
changed the character of the aristocracy and the
education of the people.
While looking upon the slab under which his
head reposes, I thought of the slight " accidents by
flood and field," the still slighter thought of the
brain and feeling of the heart, on which the destinies
of nations and of empires often depend — on the
discovery of the great diamond in the mines of Gol-
conda — on the accident which gave it into the hands
of an ambitious Persian adventurer — on the thought
which suggested the advantage of presenting it to
Shah Jehau — on the feeling which made Dara get
272 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
off, and Ourungzebe sit on his elephant at the battle of
Sureenuggur, on which depended the fate of India,
and perhaps the advancement of the Christian religion
and European literature and science over Tndia. But
for the accident which gave Charles Martel the
victory over the Saracens at Tours, Arabic and Per-
sian had perhaps been the classical languages, and
Islamism the religion of Europe ; and where we
have cathedrals and colleges we might have had
mosques and mausoleums, and America and the
Cape, the compass and the press, the steam-engine,
the telescope, and the Copernican system, might
have remained still undiscovered ; and but for the ac-
cident which turned Hannibal's face from Rome after
the battle of Cannae, or that which intercepted his
brother Asdrubal's letter, we might now all be
speaking the languages of Tyre and Sidon, and
roasting our own children in offerings to Sewa or
Saturn, instead of saving those of the Hindoos !
Poor Dara ! but for thy little jealousy of thy father
and thy son, thy desire to do all the work without
their aid, and those occasional ebullitions of passion
which alienated from thee the most powerful of the
Hindoo princes, whom it was so much thy wish and
thy interest to cherish, thy generous heart and en-
lightened mind had reigned over this vast empire,
and made it, perchance, the garden it deserves to
be made.
I visited the celebrated mosque known by the
name of Jumna Musjid, a fine building raised by Shah
« THE BOOK." 273
Jehan, and finished in six years, a..h 1060, at a cost
of ten lacks of rupees, or one hundred thousand
pounds. Money campared to man's labour and sub-
sistence is still four times more valuable in India
than in England; and a similar building in England
would cost at least four hundred thousand pounds.
It is like all the buildings raised by this Emperor,
in the best taste and style. I was attended by three
very well dressed and modest Hindoos, and a Maho-
medan servant of the Emperor. My attention was
so much taken up with the edifice, that I did not
perceive till I was about to return, that the door-
keepers had stopped my three Hindoos. I found
that they had offered to leave their shoes behind,
and submit to anything to be permitted to follow me ;
but the porters had, they said, strict orders to admit
no worshippers of idols ; for their master was a man
of the book, and had therefore got a little of the truth
in him, though unhappily not much, since his heart
had not been opened to that of the Koran. Nuthoo
could have told him, that he also had a book, which
he and some fourscore millions more thought as good
as his or better ; but he was afraid to descant upon the
merits of his shasters, and the miracles of Kishen
Jee, among such fierce cut-throat looking people ;
he looked, however, as if he could have eaten the
porter, Koran and all, when I came to their rescue.
The only volumes which Mahomedans designate by
the name of the book, are the old and new Testament,
and the Koran.
VOL. II. T
274 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
I visited also the palace, which was built by the
same Emperor. It stands on the right bank of the
Jumna, and occupies a quadrangle surrounded by a
high wall built of red sandstone, about one mile in
circumference ; one side looks down into the clear
stream of the Jumna, while the others are surrounded
by the streets of the city. The entrance is by a
noble gateway to the west ; and facing this gateway
on the inside, a hundred and twenty yards distant, is
the Dewani Aam, or the common hall of audience.
This is a large hall, the roof of which is sup-
ported upon four colonnades of pillars of red sand-
stone, now whitewashed, but once covered over with
stucco work and gilded. On one of these pillars is
shown the mark of the dagger of a Hindoo prince of
Chittore, who, in the presence of the Emperor,
stabbed to the heart one of the Mahomedan minis-
ters who made use of some disrespectful language
towards him. On being asked, how he presumed
to do this in the presence of his sovereign, he an-
swered in the very words almost of Rhoderic Dhu,
" I right my wrongs where they are given,
Though it were in the court of Heaven ! "
The throne projects into the hall from the back,
in front of the large central arch ; it is raised ten feet
above the floor, and is about ten wide, and covered
by a marble canopy supported upon four marble
pillars, all beautifully inlaid with mosaic work ex-
quisitely finished, but now much dilapidated. The
room, or recess, in which the throne stands, is open
IMPERIAL PRIDE. 275
to the front, and about fifteen feet wide, and six
deep. There is a door at the back, by which the
Emperor entered from his private apartments, and
one on his left, from which his prime minister or
chief officer of state approached the throne by a
flight of steps leading into the hall. In front of the
throne, and raised some three feet above the floor, is
a fine large slab of white marble, on which one of
the secretaries stood during the hours of audience, to
hand up to the throne any petitions that were pre-
sented, and to receive and convey commands. As the
people approached over the intervening one hundred
and twenty yards, between the gateway and the hall
of audience, they were made to bow down lower and
lower to the figure of the Emperor, as he sat upon
his throne without deigning to show, by any motion
of limb or muscle, that he was really made of flesh
and blood, and not cut out of the marble he sat
upon !
The marble walls on three sides of this recess are
inlaid with precious stones, representing some of the
most beautiful birds and flowers of India, according to
the boundaries of the country when Shah Jehan built
this palace, which included Cabool and Cashmere, after-
wards severed from it on the invasion of Nadir Shah.
On the upper part of the back wall is represented,
in the same precious stones, and in a graceful atti-
tude, an European in a kind of Spanish costume,
playing upon his guitar, and in the character of Or-
pheus, charming the birds and beasts which he first
T 2
276 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
taught the people of India so well to represent in
this manner. This I have no doubt was intended
by Austin de Bardeux for himself. The man from
Sheraz, Amanut Khan, who designed all the noble
Tagra characters in which the passages from the
Koran are inscribed upon different parts of the Taj
at Agra, was permitted to place his own name in
the same bold characters on the right hand side as we
enter the tomb of the Emperor and his queen. It
is inscribed after the date thus: — a. H. 1048, "The
humble Faqueer Amanut Khan of Sheraz." Austin
was a still greater favourite than Amanut Khan ;
and the Emperor Shah Jehan, no doubt, readily
acceded to his wishes to have himself represented
in what appeared to him and his courtiers so beau-
tiful a picture.
The Dewani Khas, or hall of private audience, is
a much more splendid building than the other, from
its richer materials, being all built of white marble
beautifully ornamented. The roof is supported upon
colonnades of marble pillars. The throne stands in
the centre of this hall, and is ascended by steps, and
covered by a canopy, ^vith four artificial peacocks on
the four corners. Here, thought I, as I entered this
apartment, sat Ourungzebe when he ordered the
assassination of his brothers Dara and Moorad, and
the imprisonment and destruction by slow poison of
his son Mahomed, who had so often fought bravely
by his side in battle. Here also, but a few months
before, sat the great Shah Jehan, to receive the in-
THE HALL OF HISTORY. 277
sclent commands of this same grandson, Mahomed,
when flushed with victory; and to offer him the
throne, merely to disappoint the hopes of the youth's
father, Ourungzebe. Here stood in chains the
graceful Sooleeman, to receive his sentence of death
by slow poison with his poor young brother, Sipeher
Shekoh, who had shared all his father's toils and
dangers, and witnessed his brutal murder! Here
sat Mahomed Shah, bandying compliments with his
ferocious conqueror. Nadir Shah, who had destroyed
his armies, plundered his treasury, stripped his throne,
and ordered the murder of a hundred thousand of
the helpless inhabitants of his capital, men, women,
and children, in a general massacre. The bodies of
these people lay in the streets tainting the air, while
the two sovereigns sat here sipping their coffee, and
swearing to the most deliberate lies in the name of
their God, prophet, and Koran ; — all are now dust ;
that of the oppressor undistinguishable from that of
the oppressed.* Within this apartment and over the
* It is related that the coffee was dehvered to the two sove-
reigns in this room upon a gold salver, by the most polished gen-
tleman of the court. His motions, as he entered the gorgeous
apartment, amidst the splendid trains of the two Emperors, were
watched with great anxiety ; if he presented the coffee first to his
own master, the furious conqueror, before whom the sovereign of
India and all his courtiers trembled, might order him to instant
execution ; if he presented it to Nadir first, he would insult his
own sovereign out of fear of the stranger. To the astonishment
of all, he walked up with a steady step direct to his own master.
** I cannot," said he, " aspire to the honour of presenting the
278 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
side arches at one end, is inscribed in black letters
the celebrated couplet, " If there be a paradise on
the face of the earth, it is this — it is this — it is this."
Anything more unlike paradise than this place now
is, can hardly be conceived. Here are crowded
together twelve hundred Mngs and queens, (for all
the descendants of the Emperors assume the title of
Sulateens, the plural of Sultans,) literally eating each
other up.
Government, from motives of benevolence, has
here attempted to apportion out the pension they
assign to the Emperor, to the different members of
his great family circle, who are to be subsisted upon
it, instead of leaving it to his own discretion. This
has perhaps tended to prevent the family from throw-
ing off its useless members, to mix with the common
herd ; and to make the population press against the
means of subsistence within these walls. Kings and
queens of the house of Tymour are to be found
lying about in scores, like broods of vermin, without,
food to eat or clothes to cover their nakedness. It
has been proposed by some, to establish colleges for
cup to the king of kings, your majesty's honoured guest, nor
would your majesty wish that any hand but your own should
do so." The Emperor took the cup from the golden salver,
and presented it to Nadir Shah, who said with a smile as he took
it, " Had all your officers known and done their duty like this
man, you had never, my good cousin, seen me and my Kuzul
Bashus at Delhi ; take care of him for your own sake, and get
round you as many like him as you can."
IMPERIAL FAMILY. 279
them in the palace, to fit them by education for high
offices under our government. Were this done,
this pensioned family, which never can possibly feel
well affected towards our government or any govern-
ment but their own, would alone send out men
enough to fill all the civil offices open to the natives
of the country, to the exclusion of the members of
the humbler but better affected families of Maho-
medans and Hindoos. If they obtained the offices they
would be educated for, the evil to government and
to society would be very great ; and if they did not
get them, the evil would be great to themselves,
since they would be encouraged to entertain hopes
that could not be realized. Better let them shift
for themselves and quietly sink among the crowd.
They would only become rallying points for the dis-
satisfaction and multiplied sources of disaffection ;
everywhere doing mischief, and nowhere doing good.
Let loose upon society, they everywhere disgust
people by their insolence and knavery, against which
we are every day required to protect the people by
our interference ; the prestige of their name will by
degrees diminish, and they will sink by-and-by into
utter insignificance. During his stay at Jubbulpore,
Kambuksh, the nephew of the Emperor, whom I
have already mentioned as the most sensible member
of the family, did an infinite deal of good by cheating
almost all the tradesmen of the town. Till he came
down among them with all his ragamuffins from
Delhi, men thought the Padshahs and their progeny
280 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
must be something superhuman, something not to be
spoken of, much less approached without reverence ;
during the latter part of his stay, my court was
crowded with complaints ; and no one has ever since
heard a scion of the house of Tymour spoken of but
as a thing to be avoided — a person more prone than
others to take in his neighbours. One of these kings,
who has not more than ten shillings a month to
subsist himself and family upon will, in writing to
the representative of the British government, address
him as " Fid wee khass," our particular slave ; and
be addressed in reply with, " Your majesty's com-
mands have been received by your slave !"
I visited the college, which is in the mausoleum
of Ghazeeood Deen, a fine building, with its usual
accompaniment of a mosque and a college. The
slab that covers the grave, and the marble screens
that surround the ground that contain it, are amongst
the most richly cut things that I have seen. The
learned and pious Mahomedans in the institution
told me in my morning visit, that there should
always be a small hollow in the top of marble slabs
like that on Jehanara's whenever any of them were
placed over graves, in order to admit water, earth,
and grass ; but that, strictly speaking, no slab should
be allowed to cover the grave, as it could not fail to
be in the way of the dead when summoned to get up
by the trumpet of Israeel on the day of the resur-
rection! " Earthly pride," said they, " has violated
this rule ; and now everybody that can afford it gets
END OF THE WORLD. 281
a marble slab put over his grave. But it is not only
in this that men have been falling off from the letter
and spirit of the law ; for we now hear drums beat-
ing and trumpets sounding even among the tombs of
the saints, a thing that our forefathers would not
have considered possible ! In former days it was
only a prophet like Moses, Jesus, or Mahomed, that
was suffered to have a stone placed over his head."
I asked them how it was that the people crowded to
the tombs of their saints, as I saw them at that of
Kohtab Shah, in old Delhi, on the Beswunt, a Hindoo
festival. " It only shows," said they, " that the end
of the world is approaching. Are we not divided
into seventy-two sects among ourselves ; all falling
off into Hindooism, and every day committing greater
and greater follies ? these are the manifest signs long
ago pointed out by wise and holy men, as indicating
the approach of the last day /" A man might make a
curious book out of the indications of the end of the
world, according to the notions of different people or
different individuals. The Hindoos have had many
different worlds or ages ; and the change from the
good to the bad, or the golden to the iron age, is
considered to have been indicated by a thousand
curious incidents. I one day asked an old Hindoo
priest, a very worthy man, what made the five heroes
of the Mahabhurut, the demigod brothers of Indian
story, leave the plains and bury themselves no one
knew where, in the eternal snows of the Himmalah
mountains ? " Why, sir," said he, " there is no ques-
6
282 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tion about that. Judishter, the eldest, who reigned
quietly at Delhi after the long war, one day sat down
to dinner with his four brothers and their single wife
Dorputee, for you know, sir, they had only one
among them all. The king said grace, and the covers
were removed : when to their utter consternation a
full grown fly was seen seated upon the dish of rice
that stood before his majesty ! Judishter rose in
consternation. ' When flies begin to blow upon
men's dinners,' said his majesty, * you may be sure, my
brothers, that the end of the world is near — the
golden age is gone — the iron one has commenced,
and we must all be off; the plains of India are no
longer a fit abode for gentlemen.' Without taking
one morsel of food," added the priest, " they set out,
and were never after seen or heard of. They were,
however, traced by manifest supernatural signs up
through the valley of the Ganges to the snow tops
of the Himmalah, in which they no doubt left their
mortal coils." They seem to feel a singular attach-
ment for the birthplace of their great progenitrix ;
for no place in the world is, I suppose, more infested
by them than Delhi at present ; and there a dish of
rice without a fly would, in the iron, be as rare a
thing as a dish with one in the golden age.
Mahomedans in India sigh for the restoration of
the old Mahomedan regime, not from any particular
attachment to the descendants of Tymour, but with
precisely the same feelings that Whigs and Tories
sigh for the return to power of their respective
MAHOMEDAN EDUCATION. 283
parties in England ; it would give them all the offices
in a country where office is everything. Among
them, as among ourselves, every man is disposed to
rate his own abilities highly, and to have a good deal
of confidence in his own good luck ; and all think,
that if the field were once opened to them by such a
change, they should very soon be able to find good
positions for themselves and their children in it.
Perhaps there are few communities in the world,
among whom education is more generally diffiised
than among Mahomedans in India. He who holds
an office worth twenty rupees a month, commonly
gives his sons an education equal to that of a prime
minister. They learn, through the medium of the
Arabic and Persian languages, what young men in
our colleges learn through those of the Greek and
Latin — that is, grammar, rhetoric, and logic. After
his seven years of study, the young Mahomedan binds
his turban upon a head almost as well filled with
the things which appertain to these three branches of
knowledge, as the young man raw from Oxford — he
will talk as fluently about Socrates and Aristotle, Plato
and Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna, alias Socrate,
Aristotalees, Aflaton, Bocrate, Jaleenoos, and Booalee
Sehna ; and what is much to his advantage in India,
the languages in which he has learnt what he knows
are those which he most requires through life. He
therefore thinks himself as well fitted to fill the high
offices which are now filled exclusively by Europeans,
and naturally enough wishes the establishments of
284 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
that power would open them to him. On the
faculties and operations of the human mind on man's
passions and affections, and his duties in all relations
of life, the works of Imam Mahomed Ghuzallee
and Nirseerooddeen Jansee, hardly yield to those
of Plato and Aristotle, or to those of any other
authors who have ever written on the same subjects
in any country. These works, the Aheaololoom,
epitomised into the Keemeeai Saadul, and the Akh-
laki Naseree, with the didactic poems of Sadee, are
the great " Pierian spring" of moral instruction, from
which the Mahomedan delights to " drink deep"
from infancy to old age, and a better spring it would
be difficult to find in the works of any other three
men.
It is not only the desire for office that makes the
educated Mahomedans cherish the recollection of the
old regime in Hindoostan ; they say, " We pray every
night for the Emperor and his family, because our
forefathers ate of the salt of his forefathers" — that is,
our ancestors were in the service of his ancestors ; and,
consequently, were of the aristocracy of the country.
Whether they really were so matters not ; they
persuade themselves or their children that they were.
This is a very common and a very innocent sort
of vanity. We often find Englishmen in India,
and I suppose in all the rest of our foreign settle-
ments, sporting high Tory opinions and feelings,
merely with a view to have it supposed, that their
families are, or at some time were, among the am-
IMPERIAL IMBECILITY. 285
tocracy of the land. To express a wish for Conser-
vative predominance, is the same thing with them,
as to express a wish for the promotion in the army,
navy, or church, of some of their near relations ; and
thus to indicate, that they are among the privileged
class whose wishes the Tories would be obliged to
consult were they in power.
Man is indeed " fearfully and wonderfully made ;"
to be fitted himself for action in the world, or for
directing ably the actions of others, it is indispen-
sably necessary, that he should mix freely from his
youth up with his fellow men. I have elsewhere
mentioned, that the state of imbecility to which a
man of naturally average powers of intellect may be
reduced when brought up with his mother in the
seraglio, is inconceivable to those who have not had
opportunities of observing it. The poor old Emperor
of Delhi, to whom so many millions look up, is an
instance. A more venerable looking man it is diffi-
cult to conceive ; and had he been educated and
brought up with his fellow men, he would no doubt
have had a mind worthy of his person. As it is, he
has never been anything but a baby. Rajah Jewun
Ram, an excellent portrait-painter, and a very
honest and agreeable person, was lately employed to
take the Emperor's portrait. After the first few
sittings, the picture was taken into the seraglio to the
ladies. The next time he came, the Emperor re-
quested him to remove the great blotch from under
the nose, " May it please your majesty, it is im-
286 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
possible to draw any person without a shadow ; and
I hope many millions will long continue to repose
under that of your majesty." '' True, Rajah," said
his majesty, " men must have shadows ; but there is
surely no necessity for placing them immediately
under their noses ! The ladies will not allow mine
to be put there ; they say it looks as if I had been
taking snuiF all my life ; and it certainly has a most
filthy appearance ; besides, it is all awry, as I told
you when you began upon it !" The Rajah was obliged
to remove from under the imperial, and certainly very
noble nose, the shadow which he had thought worth
all the rest of the picture. Queen Elizabeth is said,
by an edict, to have commanded all artists who
should paint her likeness, " to place her in a garden
with a full light upon her, and the painter to put
ant/ shadow in her face at his peril !" The next time
the Rajah came, the Emperor took the opportunity
of consulting him upon a subject that had given him
a good deal of anxiety for many months, — the dis-
missal of one of his personal servants who had be-
come negligent and disrespectful. He first took
care that no one should be within hearing, and then
whispered in the artist's ear, that he wished to dis-
miss this man. The Rajah said carelessly, as he
looked from the imperial head to the canvass, " Why
does your majesty not discharge the man if he dis-
pleases you ?" " Why do I not discharge him ! I
wish to do so, of course, and have wished to do
so for many months; but kooch tvdbeer chaheea.
HAUNTED THEATRE. 287
some plan of operations must be devised." " If yonr
majesty dislikes the man, you have only to order him
outside the gates of the palace, and you are relieved
from his presence at once." " True, man, I am re-
lieved from his presence, but his enchantments may
still reach me ; it is them that I most dread — he
keeps me in a continual state of alarm ; and I would
give anything to get him away in good humour !"
When the Rajah returned to Meerut, he received
e visit from one of the Emperor's sons or nephews,
who wanted to see the place. His tents were pitched
upon the plain not far from the theatre ; he arrived
in the evening, and there happened to be a play that
night. Several times during the night he got a
message from the prince to say, that the ground near
his tents were haunted by all manner of devils.
The Rajah sent to assure him, that this could not
possibly be the case. At last a man came about
midnight, to say that the prince could stand it no
longer, and had given orders to prepare for his im-
mediate return to Delhi; for the devils were in-
creasing so rapidly, that they must all be inevitably
devoured before daybreak if they remained. The
Rajah now went to the prince's camp, where he
found him and his followers in a state of utter con-
sternation, looking towards the theatre. The last
carriages were leaving the theatre, and going across
the plain ; and these silly people had taken them all
for devils !
The present pensioned imperial family of Delhi
288 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
are commonly considered to be of the house of
Tymour Lung, (the lame,) because Babur, the real
founder of the dynasty, was descended from him in
the seventh stage. Tymour merely made a preda-
tory inroad into India, to kill a few million of un-
believers^ plunder the country of all the moveable valu-
ables he and his soldiers could collect; and take
back into slavery all the best artificers of all kinds
that they could lay their hands upon. He left no
one to represent him in India ; he claimed no sove-
reignty, and founded no dynasty there. There is no
doubt much in the prestige of a name ; and though
six generations had passed away, the people of north-
ern India still trembled at that of the lame monster.
Babur wished to impress upon the minds of the
people the notion, that he had at his back, the same
army of demons that Tymour commanded ; and he
boasted his descent from him for the same motive
that Alexander boasted his, from the horned and
cloven-footed god of the Egyptian desert, as some-
thing to sanctify all enterprizes, justify the use of all
means, and carry before him the belief in his in-
vincibility !
Babur was an admirable chief — a fit founder of a
great dynasty — a very proper object for the imagina-
tions of future generations to dwell upon, though not
quitesogood as hisgrandson, the great Akbar. Tymour
was a ferocious monster, who knew how to organize
and command the set of demons who composed his
army, and how best to direct them for the destruc-
MASSACRES OF TYMOUR. 289
tion of the civilized portion of mankind and their
works ; but who knew nothing else. In his invasion
of India, he caused the people of the towns and
villages through which he passed, to be all massacred
without regard to religion, age, or sex. If the sol-
diers in the town resisted, the people were all mur-
dered, because they did so ; if they did not, the
people were considered to have forfeited their lives
to their conqueror for being conquered ; and told to
purchase them by the surrender of all their property,
the value of which was estimated by commissaries
appointed for the purpose. The price was always
more than they could pay ; and after torturing a
certain number to death in the attempt to screw the
sum out of them, the troops were let in to murder
the rest ; so that no city, town, or village escaped ;
and the very grain collected for the army over and
above what they could consume at any stage, was
burned, lest it might relieve some hungry infidel of
the country who had escaped from the general
carnage.
All the soldiers, high and low, were murdered
when taken prisoners, as a matter of course ; but the
officers and soldiers of Tymour's army, after taking
all the valuable moveables, thought they might be
able to find a market for the artificers by whom they
were made, and their families ; and they collected
together an immense number of men, women, and
children. All who asked for mercy pretended to be
able to make something that these Tartars had taken
VOL. II. u
290 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
a liking to. On coming before Delhi, Tymour's
army encamped on the opposite or left bank of the
river Jumna ; and here he learnt, that his soldiers
had collected together above one hundred thousand
of these artificers, besides their women and children.
There were no soldiers among them; but Tymour
thought it might be troublesome either to keep
them or to turn them away without their women
and children ; and still more so to make his soldiers
send away these women and children immediately.
He asked whether the prisoners were not for the
most part unheliemrs in his prophet Mahomed ; and
being told that the majority were Hindoos, he gave
orders, that every man should be put to death ; and
that any officer or soldier who refused or delayed to
kill or have killed all such men, should suifer death.
" As soon as this order was made known," says
Tymour's historian, and great eulogist, " the officers
and soldiers began to put it in execution ; and in less
than one hour one hundred thousand prisoners, accord-
ing to the smallest computation, were put to death,
and their bodies thrown into the river Jumna. Among
the rest, Moolana Nuseerod Deen Amor, one of the
most venerable doctors of the court, who would
never consent so much as to kill a single sheep, was
constrained to order fifteen slaves, whom he had in
his tents, to be slain. Tymour then gave orders
that one-tenth of his soldiers should keep watch over
the Indian women, children, and camels taken in
the pillage." The city was soon after taken, and the
MASSACRES OF TYMOUR. 291
people commanded, as usual, to purchase their lives
by the surrender of their property — troops were sent
in to take it — numbers were tortured to death — and
then the usual pillage and massacre of the whole
people followed without regard to religion, age, or
sex ; and about a hundred thousand more of inno-
cent and unoffending people were murdered. The
troops next massacred the inhabitants of the old city,
which had become crowded with fugitives from the
new; the last remnant took refuge in a mosque,
where two of Tymour s most distinguished generals
rushed in upon them at the head of five hundred
soldiers ; and as the amiable historian tells us, " sent
to the abyss of hell the souls of these infidels, of
whose heads they erected towers, and gave their
bodies for food to birds and beasts of prey !" Being
at last tired of slaughter, the soldiers made slaves of
the survivors, aud drove them out in chains ; and as
they passed, the officers were ordered to select any
they liked except the masons ; whom Tymour re-
quired to build for him, at Samarcand, a church
similar to that of Altumsh, in old Delhi.
He now set out to take Meerut, which was at
that time a fortified town of much note. The people
determined to defend themselves ; and happened to
say, that Turmachurn Khan, who invaded India at
the head of a similar body of Tartars a century
before, had been unable to take the place. This so
incensed Tymour, that he brought all his forces to
bear on Meerut, took the place, and having had
u 2
292 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
all the Hindoo men found in it skinned alive, he
distributed their wives and children among his
soldiers as slaves. He now sent out a division of
his army to murder unbelievers, and collect plunder,
over the cultivated plains between the Ganges and
Jumna, while he led the main body on the same
pious duty along the hills from Hurdwar, on the
Ganges, to the west. Having massacred a few thou-
sands of the hill people, Tymour read the noon
prayer, and returned thanks to God for the victories
he had gained, and the numbers he had murdered
through his goodness ; and told his admiring army,
" that a religious war like this produced two great
advantages : it secured eternal happiness in heaven,
and a good store of valuable spoils on earth — that
his design in all the fatigues and labours which he
had undertaken, was solely to render hxm^el^ pleasi^ig
to God, treasure up good works for his eternal happi-
ness, and get riches to bestow npon his soldiers
and the poor !" The historian makes a grave remark
upon this invasion. " The Koran declares, that the
highest glory man can attain in this world is, un-
unquestionably, that of waging a successful war in
person against the enemies of his religion, (no mat-
ter whether those against whom it is waged happen
ever to have heard of this religion or not.) Mahomed
inculcated the same doctrine in his discourses with
his friends ; and in consequence, the great Tymour
always strove to exterminate all the unbelievers, with
a view to acquire that glory, and to spread the re-
SLAVES OF TYMOUR. 293
nown of his conquests ! My name," said he, " has
spread terror through the universe; and the least
motion I make, is capable of shaking the whole
earth !"
Tymour returned to his capital of Samarcand, in
Transoxiana, in May, 1399. His army, besides
other things which they brought frnm India, had an
immense number of men, women, and children,
whom they had reduced to slavery, and driven along
like flocks of sheep to forage for their subsistence in
the countries through which they passed, or perish.
After the murder on the banks of the Jumna of part
of the multitude they had collected before taking the
capital, amounting to one hundred thousand men,
Tymour was obliged to assign one-tenth of the soldiers
of his army to guard what were left, the women and
children. " After the murder in the capital of Delhi,"
says the historian, an eye witness, " there were some
soldiers who had a hundred and fifty slaves, men,
women, and children, whom they drove out of the
city before them ; and some soldiers' boys had twenty
slaves to their own share." On reaching Samarcand,
they employed these slaves as best they could ; and
Tymour employed his, the masons, in raising his
great church from the quarries of the neighbouring
hills.
In October following, Tymour led this army of
demons over the rich and polished countries of
Syria, Natolia, and Georgia, levelling all the cities,
towns, and villages, and massacreing the inhabitants
294 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
without any regard to age or sex, with the same
amiable view of correcting the notions of people re-
garding his creed, propitiating the Deity, and re-
warding his soldiers. He sent to the Christian in-
jiahitants of Smyrna, then one of the first commer-
cial cities in the world, a message by one of his
generals, to request that they would at once embrace
Mahomedanism, in the beauties of which the general
and his soldiers had orders generously and diligently
to instruct them ! They refused, and Tymour re-
paired immediately to the spot, that he might " share
in the merit of sending their souls to the abyss
of hell." Bajazet, the Turkish emperor of Natolia,
had recently terminated an unavailing siege of seven
years. Tymour took the city in fourteen days,
December, 1402; had every man, woman, and child
that he found in it murdered ; and caused some of
the heads of the Christians to be thrown by his
balistas or catapultas into the ships that had come
from different European nations to their succour.
All other Christian communities, found within the
wide range of this dreadful tempest, were swept off
in the same manner ; nor did Mahomedan commu-
nities fare better. After the taking of Bagdad, every
Tartar soldier was ordered to cut off and bring away
the head of one or more prisoners, because some of
the Tartar soldiers had been killed in the attack ;
^' and they spared," says the historian, " neither old
men of fourscore, nor young children of eight years
of age ; no quarter was given either to rich or
PROJECTED INVASION OF CHINA. 295
poor, and the number of the dead was so great, that
they could not be counted ; towers were made of
these heads, to serve as an example to posterity."
Ninety thousand were thus murdered in cold blood ;
and one hundred and twenty pyramids were made
of the heads for trophies ! Damascus, Nice, Aleppo,
Sabaste, and all the other rich and populous cities of
Palestine, Syria, Asia-Minor, and Georgia, then the
most civilized region of the world, shared in the
same fate; all were reduced to ruins, and their
people, without regard to religion, age, or sex, bar-
barously and brutally murdered.
In the beginning of 1405, this man recollected,
that among the many millions of unbelieving Chris-
tians and Hindoos, " whose souls he had sent to
the abyss of hell," there were many Mahomedans,
who had no doubt whatever in the divine origin
or co-eternal existence of the Koran ; and as their
death might, perhaps, not have been altogether
pleasing to his god and his prophet, he determined to
appease them both by undertaking the murder of
some two hundred millions of industrious and un-
offending Chinese; among whom there was little
chance of finding one man who had ever even heard
of the Koran, much less believed in its divinity and
co-eternity, or of its interpreter, Mahomed. At the
head of between two and three hundred thousand
well-mounted Tartars, and their followers, he de-
parted from his capital of Samarcand, on the 8th of
January, 1405, and crossed the Jaxartes on the ice—
296 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
in the words of his judicious historian, "he thus
generously undertook the conquest of China, which
was inhabited only by unbelievers, that by so good
a work he might atone for what had been done
amiss in other wars, in which the blood of so many
of the faithful had been shed." " As all my vast
conquests," said Tymour himself, "have caused the
destruction of a good many of the faithful, I am re-
solved to perform some good action, to atone for the
crimes of my past life ; and to make war upon the
infidels, and exterminate the idolaters of China,
which cannot be done without very great strength and
power. It is therefore fitting, my dear companions
in arms, that those very soldiers who were the in-
struments whereby those my faults were committed,
should be the means by which I work out my re-
pentance ; and that they should march into China,
to acquire for themselves and their Emperor the
merit of that holy war, in demolishing the temples of
these unbelievers, and erecting good Mahomedan
mosques in their places. By this means we shall
obtain pardon for all our sins, for the holy Koran
assures us that good works efface the sins of this
world. At the close of the Emperor's speech the
princes of the blood and other officers of rank, be-
sought God to bless his generous undertaking, unani-
mously applauding his sentiments, and loading him
with praises. Let the Emperor but display his
standard, and we will follow him to the end of the
world !" Tymour died soon after crossing the
MERIT OF TYMOUR. 297
Jaxartes, on the first of April, 1405 ; and China was
saved from this dreadful scourge. But as the philo-
sophical historian, Shurfod Deen, profoundkj observes,
" The Koran remarks, that if any one in his pilgri-
mage to Mecca should be surprised by death, the
merit of the good work is still written in heaven in
his name, as surely as if he had had the good fortune
to accomplish it. It is the same with regard to the
Ghazee, (holy war,) where an eternal merit is ac-
quired by troubles, fatigues, and dangers ; and he
who dies during the enterprise, at whatever stage, is
deemed to have completed his design." Thus
Tymour the lame had the merit, beyond all question
of doubt, of sending to the abyss of hell " two hun-
dred millions of men, women, and children, for not
believing in a certain book, of which they had never
heard or read ; for the Tartars had not become Maho-
medans when they conquered China in the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century. Indeed, the amiable
and profound historian, is of opinion, after the most
mature deliberation, " that God himself must have
arranged all this in favour of so great and good a
prince ; and knowing that his end was nigh, inspired
him with the idea of undertaking this enterprise, that
he might have the merit of having completed it ;
otherwise, how should he have thought of leading
out his army in the dead of winter to cross countries
covered with ice and snow ?"
The heir to the throne, the Prince Peer Mahomed,
was absent when Tymour died ; but his wives who
298 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
had accompanied him were all anxious to share in
the merit of the holy undertaking ; and in a council
of the chiefs held after his death, the opinions of
these amiable princesses prevailed, that the two
hundred millions of Chinese ought still to be sent to
" the abyss of hell," since it had been the earnest
desire of their deceased husband, and must un-
doubtedly have been the will of God, to send them
thither without delay ! Fortunately, quarrels soon
arose among his sons and grandsons about the suc-
cession, and the army recrossed the Jaxartes, still
over the ice, in the beginning of April ; and China
was saved from this scourge. Such was Tymour the
lame, the man whose greatness and goodness are to
live in the hearts of the people of India, nine-tenths
of whom are Hindoos ; and to fill them to overflowing
with love and gratitude towards his descendants !
In this brief sketch will perhaps be found the
true history of the origin of the gypsies, the tide of
whose immigration begun to flow over all parts of
Europe immediately after the return of Tymour
from India. The hundreds of thousands of slaves
which his army brought from India in men, women,
and children, were cast away when they got as many
as they liked from among the more beautiful and
polished inhabitants of the cities of Palestine, Syria,
Asia-Minor, and Georgia, which were all one after
the other treated in the same manner as Delhi had
been. The Tartar soldiers had no time to settle
down and employ them as they intended for their
ORIGIN OF THE GYPSIES. 299
convenience ; they were marched off to ravage
western Asia, in October, 1399, about three months
after their return from India. Tymour reached
Samarcand in the middle of May ; but he had gone
on in advance of his army, which did not arrive for
some time after. Being cast off, the slaves from
India spread over those countries which were most
likely to afford them the means of subsistence, as
beggars ; for they knew nothing of the manners, the
arts, or the language of those among whom they
were thrown ; and as Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Ana-
tolia, Georgia, Circassia, and Russia, had been, or
were being, desolated by the army of this Tartar
chief, they passed into Egypt and Bulgaria, whence
they spread over all other countries. Scattered
over the face of these countries, they found small
parties of vagrants who were from the same region
as themselves, who spoke the same language, and
who had in all probability been drawn away by the
same means, of armies returning from the invasion of
India. Ghengis Khan, invaded India two centuries
before ; his descendant, Turmachurn, invaded India
in 1303, and must have taken back with him multi-
tudes of captives. The unhappy prisoners of Tymour
the lame, gathered round these nuclei as the only
people who could understand or sympathise with
them. From his sixth expedition into India, Mahmood
is said to have carried back with him to Ghiznee,
two hundred thousand Hindoo captives in a state of
slavery, a.d. 1011. From his seventh expedition in
300 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
1017, his army of one hundred and forty thousand
fighting men returned " laden with Hindoo captives,
who became so cheap, that a Hindoo slave was
valued at less than two rupees !" Mahmood made
several expiditions to the west immediately after his
return from India, in the same manner as Tymour
did after him ; and he may in the same manner
have scattered his Indian captives. They adopted
the habits of their new friends, w^hich are indeed
those of all the vagrant tribes of India ; and they
have continued to preserve them to the present day.
I have compared their vocabularies with those of
India, and find so many of the words the same, that
I think a native of India would, even in the present
day, be able, without much difficulty, to make him-
self understood by a gang of gypsies in any part of
Europe. A good Christian may not be able ex-
actly to understand the nature of the merit which
Tamerlane expected to acquire from sending so many
unoffending Chinese to the abyss of hell. According
to the Mahomedan creed, God has vowed " to fill hell
chock full of men and genii." Hence his reasons
for hardening their hearts against that faith in the
Koran which might send them to heaven ; and which
would, they think, necessarily follow an impartial
examination of the evidence of its divinity and cer-
tainty. Tamerlane thought, no doubt, that it would
be very meritorious on his part to assist God in this
his labour of filling the great abyss, by throwing into
it all the existing population of China; while he
DIALOGUE WITH A MOOFTEE. 301
spread over their land, in pastoral tribes, the goodly
seed of Mahomedanism, which would give him a rich
supply of recruits for paradise.
The following dialogue took place one day be-
tween me and the Mooftee, or head Mahomedan law
officer of one of our regulation courts.
" Does it not seem to you strange, Mooftee Sahib,
that your prophet, who, according to your notions,
must have been so well acquainted with the universe,
and the laws that govern it, should not have revealed
to his followers some great truth hitherto unknown
regarding these laws, which might have commanded
their belief, and * that of all future generations, in
his divine mission ?' "
" Not at all," said the Mooftee ; " they would pro-
bably not have understood him ; and if they had,
those who did not believe in what he did actually
reveal to them, would not have believed in him
had he revealed all the laws that govern the uni-
verse."
" And why should they not have believed in
him?"
" Because what he revealed was sufficient to con-
vince all men whose hearts had not been hardened
to unbelief. God said, ' As for the unbelievers, it is
the same with them, whether you admonish them or
do not admonish them ; they will not believe. God
hath sealed up their hearts, their ears, and their eyes ;
and a grievous punishment awaits them.' "*
* See Koran, chap. ii.
302 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" And why were the hearts of any men thus
hardened to unbelief, when by unbelief they were to
incur such dreadful penalties ? "
" Because they were otherwise wicked men."
" But you think, of course, that there was really
much of good in the revelations of your prophet ?"
" Of course we do."
" And that those who believed in it were likely
to become better men for their faith ?"
" Assuredly."
" Then why harden the hearts of even bad men
against a faith that might make them good?"
" Has not God said — ' If we had pleased, we had
certainly given unto every soul its direction ; but
the word which hath proceeded from me, must ne-
cessarily be fulfilled, when I said, Verily I will fill
hell with genii and men altogether'^ And again, * Had
it pleased the Lord he would have made all men of
one religion ; but they shall not cease to differ among
them, unless those on whom the Lord shall have
mercy ; and unto this hath he created them ; for the
word of thy Lord shall be fulfilled, when he said,
Verily^ I will fill hell altogether with genii and
men! " f
" You all believe that the devil, like all the angels,
was made of fire?"
" Yes."
" And that he was doomed to hell because he
* See Koran, chap, xxxii. % ^l^id* chap. xi.
6
DIALOGUE WITH A MOOFTEE. 303
would not fall down and worship Adam, who was
made of clay ? "
" Yes, God commanded him to bow down to
Adam ; and when he did not do as he was bid, God
said, * Why, Eblees, what hindered thee from bow-
ing down to Adam as the other angels did?' He
replied, ' It is not fit that I should worship man,
whom thou hast formed of dried clay, or black mud.'
God said, ' Get thee, therefore, hence, for thou shalt
be pelted with stones ; and a curse shall be upon
thee till the day of judgment !' The devil said, * O
Lord, give me respite until the day of resurrection.'
God said, * Verily, thou shalt be respited until the
appointed time.' " *
" And does it not appear to you, Mooftee Sahib,
that in respiting the devil, Eblees, till the day of
resurrection, some injustice was done to the children
of Adam?"
" How ?"
" Because he replies, ' 0 Lord, because thou hast
seduced me I will surely tempt men to disobedience
in the earth."
" No, sir, because he could only tempt those who
were predestined to go astray, for he adds, ' I will
seduce them all, except such of them as shall be thy
chosen servants' God said, " This is the right way
with me. Verily, as to my servants, thou shalt have
no power over them ; but over those only who shall
* See Koran, chap. xv.
304 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
be seduced, and who shall follow thee ; and hell is
surely denounced unto them all.' " *
" Then you think, Mooftee Sabib, that the devil
could seduce only such as were predestined to go
astray, and who would have gone astray whether he
the devil had been respited or not ?"
" Certainly I do."
" Does it not then appear to you that it is as un-
just to predestine men to do that for which they are
to be sent to hell, as it would be to leave them all
unguided to the temptations of the devil ?"
" These are difficult questions," replied the Mooftee,
" which we cimnot venture to ask even ourselves.
All that we can do is to endeavour to understand
what is written in the holy book, and act accord-
ing to it. God made us all, and he has the right to
do what he pleases with what he has made; the
potter makes two vessels, he dashes the one on the
ground, but the other he sells to stand in the palaces
of princes !"
" But a pot has no soul, Mooftee Sahib, to be
roasted to all eternity in hell !"
* " This is a revelation of the most mighty, the merciful God ;
that thou mayest warn a people whose fathers were not warned,
and who live in negligence. Our sentence hath justly been pro-
nounced against the greater part of them, wherefore they shall
not believe. It shall be equal unto them whether thou preach
unto them, or do not preach unto them ; they shall not believe/'
— Koran, chap, xxxvi.
RELIGIOUS IGNORANCE. 305
" True, sir; these are questions beyond the reach
of human understanding."
" How often do you read over the Koran ?" *
" I read the whole over about three times a
month," replied the Mooftee.
I mentioned this conversation one day to the
Nawab Aleeoodeen, a most estimable old gentleman
of seventy years of age, who resides at Moradabad,
and asked him whether he did not think it a sin-
gular omission on the part of Mahomed, after his
journey to heaven, not to tell mankind some of the
truths that have since been discovered regarding the
nature of the bodies that fill these heavens, and the
laws that govern their motions. Mankind could not,
either from the Koran, or from the traditions, per-
ceive that he was at all aware of the errors of the
system of astronomy that prevailed in his day, and
among his people.
" Not at all," replied the Nawab ; " the prophets
had no doubt abundant opportunities of becom-
ing acquainted with the heavenly bodies, and the
laws which govern them, particularly those who, like
Mahomed, had been up through the seven heavens ;
but their thoughts were so entirely taken up with the
Deity, that they probably never noticed the objects
by which he was surrounded ; and if they had noticed
* I have never met another man so thoroughly master of the
Koran as the Mooftee, and yet he had the reputation of being a
very corrupt man in his office.
VOL. IL X
306 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
them, they would not perhaps have thought it ne-
cessary to say anything about them. Their object
was to direct men's thoughts towards God, and his
commandments ; and to instruct them in their duties
towards him and towards each other. Suppose,"
continued the Nawab, " you were to be invited to
see and converse with even your earthly sovereign,
would not your thoughts be too much taken up with
him to admit of your giving, on your return, an ac-
count of the things you saw about him. I have been
several times to see you, and I declare that I have
been so much taken up with the conversations which
have passed, that I have never noticed the many
articles I now see around me, nor could I have
told any one on my return home what I had seen in
your room, — the wall shades, the pictures, the sofas,
the tables, the book-cases," continued he, " casting
his eyes round the room, all escaped my notice, and
might have escaped it had my eyes been younger
and stronger than they are. What then must have
been the state of mind of those great prophets, who
were admitted to see and converse with the great
Creator of the universe, and were sent by him to
instruct mankind !"
I told my old friend that I thought his answer
the best that could be given ; but still, that we could
not help thinking, that if Mahomed had really been
acquainted with the nature of the heavenly bodies,
and the laws which govern them, he would have
taken advantage of his knowledge to secure more
ASTRONOMY OF THE KORAN. 307
firmly their faith in his mission, and have explained
to them the real state of the case, instead of talking
about the stars as merely made to be thrown at
devils, to give light to men upon this little globe of
ours, and to guide them in their wanderings upon it
by sea and land.
" But what," said the Nawab, " are the great
truths that you would have had our holy prophet to
teach mankind ? "
" Why, Nawab Sahib, I would have had him tell
us, amongst other things, of that law which makes
this our globe, and the other planets revolve round
the sun, and their moons around them. I would
have had him teach us something of the nature of the
things we call comets, or stars with large tails, and
of that of the fixed stars, which we suppose to be
suns, like our sun, with planets revolving round
them like ours, since it is clear that they do not
borrow their light from our sun, nor from anything
that we can discover in the heavens. I would also
have had him tell us the nature of that white belt
which crosses the sky, which you call the o various
belt, Khutabyuz, and we the milky-way, and which
we consider to be a collection of self-lighted stars,
while many orthodox but unlettered Mussulmans
think it the marks made in the sky by '' Boo^ak,''
the rough-shed donkey, on which your prophet rode
from Jerusalem to heaven. And you think, Nawab
Sahib, that there was quite evidence enough to sa-
tisfy any person whose heart had not been hardened
X 2
308 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to unbelief? and that no description of the heavenly
bodies, or of the laws which govern their motion,
could have had any influence on the minds of such
people ?"
" Assuredly I do, sir ! Has not God said, ' If we
should open a gate in the heavens above them, and
they should ascend thereto all the day long, they
would surely say, our eyes are only dazzled, or rather
we are a people deluded by enchantments.' * Do you
think, sir, that anything which his majesty, Moses,
could have said about the planets, and the comets, and
the milky- way, would have tended so much to persuade
the children of Israel of his divine mission, as did the
single stroke of his rod, which brought a river of de-
licious water gushing from a dry rock when they
were all dying from thirst ? When our holy prophet,"
continued the Nawab, (placing the points of the four
lingers of his right-hand on the table,) " placed his
blessed hand thus on the ground, and caused four
streams to gush out from the dry plain, and supply
with fresh water the whole army which was perish-
ing from thirst ; and when out of oiAj five small dates
he afterwards feasted all this immense army till they
could eat no more, he surely did more to convince
his followers of his divine mission than he could have
done by any discourse about the planets, and the
milky-way," (Khut, i, Abyuz.)
" No doubt, Nawab Sahib, these were very power-
ful arguments for those who saw them, or believed
* See Koran, chap. xv.
MAHOMEDAN FAITH. 309
them to have been seen ; and those who doubt the
divinity of your prophet's mission are those who
doubt their having ever been seen."
" The whole army saw and attested them, sir, and
that is evidence enough for us ; and those who saw
them, and were not satisfied, must have had their
hearts hardened to unbelief"
" And you think, Nawab Sahib, that a man is not
master of his own belief or disbelief in religious
matters ; though he is rewarded by an eternity of
bliss in paradise for the one, and punished by an
eternity of scorching in hell for the other ?"
" I do, sir — faith is a matter of feeling ; and over
our feelings we have no control. All that we can
do is to prevent their influencing our actions, when
these actions would be mischievous. I have a desire
to stretch out this arm, and crush that fly on the
table. I can control the act, and do so ; but the
desire is not under my control."
" True, Nawab Sahib ; and in this life we punish
men not for their feelings, which is beyond their con-
trol ; but for their acts, over which they have con-
trol ; and we are apt to think that the Deity will
do the same."
" There are, sir," continued the Nawab, " three
kinds of certainty — the moral certainty, the mathe-
matical certainty, and the religious certainty, which
we hold to be the greatest of all — the one in which
the mind feels entire repose. This repose I feel in
everything that is written in the Koran, in the Bible,
310 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and, with the few known exceptions, in the New
Testament. We do not believe that Christ was the
son of God, though we believe him to have been a
great prophet sent down to enlighten mankind ; nor
do we believe that he was crucified. We believe
that the wicked Jews got hold of a thief, and cruci-
fied him in the belief that he was the Christ — but
the real Christ was, we think, taken up into heaven,
and not suffered to be crucified."
" But, Nawab Sahib, the Seikhs have their book
in which they have the same faith."
" True, sir, but the Seikhs are unlettered, ignorant
brutes ; and you do not, I hope, call their Gurunth
a book— a thing written only the other day, and full
of nonsense ! No book has appeared since the Koran
came down from heaven ; nor will any other come
till the day of judgment. And how," said the Nawab,
" have people in modern days made all the discoveries
you speak of in astronomy ?"
** Chiefly, Nawab Sahib, by means of the teles-
cope which is an instrument of modern inven-
tion."
" And do you suppose, sir, that I would put the
evidence of one of your Doorbems (telescopes) in op-
position to that of the holy prophet ? No, sir, de-
pend upon it that there is much fallacy in a teles-
cope— it is not to be relied upon. I have conversed
with many excellent European gentlemen ; and their
great fault appears to me to lie in the implicit faith
they put in these telescopes — they hold their evidence
SIN OF TELESCOPES. 311
above that of the prophets, Moses, Abraham, and
Elijah ! It is dreadful to think how much mischief
these telescopes may do ! No, sir, let us hold fast
by the prophets ; what they tell us is the truth, and
the only truth that we can entirely rely upon in this
life. I would not hold the evidence of all the teles-
copes in the world, as anything against one vrord
uttered by the humblest of the prophets named in
the Old or New Testament, or the holy Koran. The
prophets, sir, keep to the prophets, and throw aside
your telescopes — there is no truth in them : some of
them turn people upside down, and make them walk
upon their heads ; and yet you put their evidence
against that of the prophets."
Nothing that I could say would, after this, con-
vince the Nawab that there was any virtue in teles-
copes ; his religious feeling had been greatly excited
against them ; and had Galileo, Tycho-Brahe, Kepler,
Newton, Laplace, and the Herschels, all been pre-
sent to defend them, they would not have altered
his opinion of their demerits. The old man has, I
believe, a shrewd suspicion that they are inventions
of the devil to lead men from the right way; and
were he told all that these great men have discovered
through their means, he would be very much dis-
posed to believe that they were incarnations of his
Satanic majesty playing over again with Doorbems,
(telescopes,) the same game which the serpent played
with the apple in the garden of Eden !
312 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid ;
Leave them to God above : him serve, and fear !
Of other creatures, as him pleases best,
Wherever placed, let him dispose : joy thou
In what he gives to thee, this Paradise
And thy fair E\e : heaven is for thee too high
To know what passes there : be lowly wise :
Think only what concerns thee, and thy being :
Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there
Live, in what state, condition, or degree :
Contented that thus far hath been reveal' d.
Not of earth only, but of highest heaven !"
Paradise Lost, book viii.
313
CHAPTER XXI.
INDIAN POLICE ITS DEFECTS AND THEIR CAUSE AND
REMEDY.
On the 26th we crossed the river Jumna, over a
bridge of boats, kept up by the King of Oude for
the use of the public, though his majesty is now
connected with Delhi only by the tomb of his an-
cestor; and his territories are separated from the
imperial city by the two great rivers, Ganges and
Jumna. We proceeded to Furuckungur, about
twelve miles over an execrable road running over a
flat but rugged surface of unproductive soil. India
is, perhaps, the only civilized country in the world
where a great city could be approached by such a
road from the largest military station in the empire,
not more than three stages distant. After breakfast,
the head native police officer of the division came to
pay his respects. He talked of the dreadful murders
which used to be perpetrated in this neighbourhood
by miscreants, who found shelter in the territories of
the Begum Suniroo, whither his folio wei-s dared not
314 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
hunt for them ; and mentioned a case of nine per-
sons who had been murdered just within the boundary
of our territories about seven years before, and
thrown into a dry well. He was present at the in-
quest held on their bodies, and described their ap-
pearance ; and I found that they were the bodies of
a news writer from Lahore, who, with his eight com-
panions, had been murdered by Thugs on his way back
to Rohilcund. I had long before been made ac-
quainted with the circumstances of this murder, and
the perpetrators had all been secured, but we wanted
this link in the chain of evidence. It had been de-
scribed to me as having taken place within the
boundary of the Begum's territory, and I applied to
her for a report on the inquest. She declared that no
bodies had been discovered about the time men-
tioned ; and I concluded that the ignorance of the
people of the neighbourhood was pretended, as usual
in such cases, with a view to avoid a summons to
give evidence in our courts. I referred forthwith to
the magistrate of the district, and found the report
that I wanted, and thereby completed the chain of
evidence upon a very important case. The Thanadar
seemed much surprised to find that I was so well ac-
quainted with the circumstances of this murder ; but
still more, that the perpetrators were not the poor
old Begum's subjects, but our own !
The police officers employed on our borders find
it very convenient to trace the perpetrators of all
murders and gang robberies into the territories of
8
POLICE. 315
native chiefs, whose subjects they accuse often when
they know that the crimes have been perpetrated by
our own. They are, on the one hand, afraid to seize
or accuse the real offenders, lest they should avenge
themselves by some personal violence, or by thefts or
robberies, which they often commit, with a view to
get them turned out of office as inefficient ; and on the
other they are tempted to conceal the real offenders
by a liberal share of the spoil, and a promise of not
again offending within their beat. Their tenure of
office is far too insecure, and their salaries are far too
small. They are often dismissed summarily by the
magistrate if they send him in no prisoners ; and also
if they send in to him prisoners who are not ultimately
convicted, because a magistrate's merits are too often
estimated by the proportion that his convictions
bear to his acquittals, among the prisoners committed
for trial to the sessions. Men are often ultimately ac-
quitted for want of judicial proof, when there is
abundance of that moral proof on which a police
officer or magistrate has to act in the discharge of
his duties ; and in a country where gangs of profes-
sional and hereditary robbers and murderers extend
their depredations into very remote parts, and seldom
commit them in the districts in which they reside,
the most vigilant police officer must often fail to
discover the perpetrators of heavy crimes that take
place within his range.
When they cannot find them, the native officers
either seize innocent persons, and frighten them into
316 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
confession ; or else they try to conceal the crime, and
in this they are seconded by the sufferers in the rob-
bery, who will always avoid if they can a prosecu-
tion in our courts, and by their neighbours, who
dread being summoned to give evidence as a serious
calamity. The man who has been robbed, instead of
being an object of compassion among his neighbours,
often incurs their resentment for subjecting them to
this calamity ; and they not only pay largely them-
selves, but make him pay largely to have his losses
concealed from the magistrate. Formerly, when a
district was visited by a judge of circuit, to hold his
sessions only once or twice a year, and men were
constantly bound over to prosecute and appear as
evidence, from sessions to sessions, till they were
wearied and wearied to death, this evil was much
greater than it is at present, when every district is
provided with its judge of sessions, who is, or ought
to be, always ready to take up the cases committed
for trial by the magistrate. This was one of the best
measures of Lord W. Bentinck's admirable, though
much abused administration of the government of
India. Still, however, the inconvenience and delay
of prosecution in our courts are so great, and the
chance of the ultimate conviction of great offenders
is so small, that strong temptations are held out to
the police to conceal, or misrepresent the character
of crimes ; and they must have a greater feeling of
security in their tenure of office, and more adequate
salaries, better chances of rising, and better super-
THANADARS. 317
vision over them, before they will resist such tempta-
tions. These Thanadars, and all the public officers
under them, are all so very inadequately paid, that
corruption among them excites no feeling of odium
or indignation in the minds of those among whom
they live and serve. Such feelings are rather di-
rected against the government that places them in
situations of so much labour and responsibility with
salaries so inadequate; and thereby confers upon
them virtually a kind of license to pay themselves
by preying upon those whom they are employed
ostensibly to protect. They know that with such
salaries they can never have the reputation of being
honest, however faithfully they may discharge their
duties ; and it is too hard to expect that men will
long submit to the necessity of being thought cor-
rupt, without reaping some of the advantages of
corruption. Let the Thanadars have everywhere
such salaries as will enable them to maintain their
families in comfort, and keep up that appearance of
respectability which their station in society demands ;
and over every three or four Thanadars' jurisdiction,
let there be an officer appointed upon a higher scale
of salary, to supervise and control their proceedings,
and armed with powers to decide minor offences.
To these higher stations the Thanadars will be able
to look forward as their reward for a faithful and
zealous discharge of their duties.
He who can suppose that men so inadequately
paid, who have no promotion to look forward to, and
318 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
feel no security in their tenure of office, and conse-
quently no hope of a provision for old age, will be
zealous and honest in the discharge of their duties,
must be very imperfectly acquainted with human na-
ture, and with the motives by which men are influenced
in all quarters of the world ; but we are none of us
so ignorant, for we all know that the same motives
actuate public servants in India, as elsewhere. We
have acted successfully upon this knowledge in the
scale of salaries and gradation of rank assigned to
European civil functionaries, and to all native func-
tionaries employed in the judicial and revenue
branches of the public service ; and why not act
upon it in that of the salaries assigned to the native
officers employed in the police ? The magistrate of
a district gets a salary of from tvvo thousand to two
thousand fiwe hundred rupees a month. The native
officer next under him is the Thanadar, or head native
police officer of a subdivision of his district, contain-
ing many towns and villages, with a population of a
hundred thousand souls. This officer gets a salary
of twenty-five rupees a month. He cannot possibly
do his duty unless he keeps one or two horses ; in-
deed, he is told by the magistrate that he cannot ;
and that he must have one or two horses, or resign
his post. The people seeing how much we expect
from the Thanadar, and how little we give him, sub-
mit to his demands for contributions without mur-
muring, and consider almost any demand trivial from
a man so employed and so paid. They are con-
SALARIES. 319
founded at our inconsistency, and say, "We see you
giving high salaries, and high prospects of advance-
ment, to men who have nothing to do but collect
your rents, and to decide our disputes about pounds,
shillings, and pence, which we used to decide much
better ourselves, when we had no other court but
that of our elders — while those who are to protect
life and property, to keep peace over the land, and
enable the industrious to work in security, maintain
their families, and pay the government revenue, are
left with hardly any pay at all." There is really
nothing in our rule in India which strikes the people
so much as this inconsistency, the evil effects of
which are so great and so manifest ; the only way to
remedy the evil is, to give a greater feeling of secu-
rity in the tenure of office, a higher rate of salary,
the hope of a provision for old age, and, above all
the gradation of rank, by interposing the officers I
speak of between the Thanadars and the magistrate.
This has all been done in the establishments for the
collection of the revenue, and administration of civil
justice.
Hobbes, in his Leviathan, says, " And seeing that
the end of punishment is not revenge and discharge
of choler, but correction either of the offender, or of
others, by his example, the severest punishments are
to be inflicted for those crimes that are of most
danger to the public ; such as are those which pro-
ceed from malice to the government established;
those that spring from contempt of justice ; those
320 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
that provoke indignation in the multitude ; and those,
which unpunished, seem authorized, as when they
are committed by sons, servants, or favourites of men
in authority. For indignation carrieth men, not only
against the actors and authors of injustice, but against
all power that is likely to protect them ; as in the
case of Tarquin, when, for the insolent act of one of
his sons, he was driven out of Rome, and the mo-
narchy itself dissolved." (Para. 2, chap, xxx.) Almost
every one of our Thanadars is, in his way, a little
Tarquin, exciting the indignation of the people
against his rulers ; and no time should be lost in
converting him into something better.
By the obstacles which are still everywhere op-
posed to the conviction of offenders in the distance
of our courts, the forms of procedure, and other
causes " of the law's delay," we render the duties of
our police establishment everywhere " more honoured
in the breach than the observance," by the mass of
the people among whom they are placed. We must,
as I have before said, remove some of these obstacles
to the successful prosecution of offenders in our cri-
minal courts, which tend so much to deprive the
government of all popular aid and support in the
administration of justice ; and to convert all our
police establishments into instruments of oppression,
instead of what they should be, the efficient means
of protection to the persons, property, and character
of the innocent. Crimes multiply from the assurance
the guilty are everywhere apt to feel of impunity to
POLICE. 321
crime ; and the more crimes multiply the greater is
the aversion the people everywhere feel to aid the
government in the arrest and conviction of cri-
minals ; because they see more and more the inno-
cent punished by attendance upon distant courts at
great cost and inconvenience, to give evidence upon
points which appear to them unimportant, while the
guilty escape owing to technical difficulties which
they can never understand.
The best way to remove these obstacles is, to in-
terpose officers between the Thanadar and the ma.
gistrate, and arm them with judicial powers to try
minor cases, leaving an appeal open to the magis-
trate; and to extend the final jurisdiction of the
magistrate to a greater range of crimes, though it
should involve the necessity of reducing the measure
of punishment annexed to them. Beccaria has
justly observed, that " Crimes are more effectually
prevented by the certainty than by the severity of
punishment. The certainty of a small punishment
will make a stronger impression than the fear of one
more severe, if attended with the hope of escaping;
for it is the nature of mankind to be terrified at the
approach of the smallest inevitable evil, whilst hope,
the best gift of Heaven, has the power of dispelling
the apprehensions of a greater, especially if supported
by examples of impunity, which weakness or avarice
too frequently affords."
I ought to have mentioned that the police of a
district, in our Bengal territories, consists of a ma-
VOL. II. Y
322 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
gistrate and his assistant, who are European gentle-
men of the civil service ; and a certain number of
Thanadars, from twelve to sixteen, who preside over
the different subdivisions of the district in which
they reside with their establishments. These Tha-
nadars get twenty-five rupees a month, have under
them four or five Jemadars upon eight rupees, and
thirty or forty Burkundazes upon four rupees a
month. The Jemadars are, most of them, placed
in charge of nakas, or subdivisions of the Thanadars
jurisdiction, the rest are kept at their head-quarters,
ready to move to any point where their services may
be required. These are all paid by government ;
but there is in each village one watchman, and in
large villages more than one, who are appointed by
the heads of villages, and paid by the communities,
and required daily or periodically to report all the
police matters of their villages to the Thanadars.*
The distance between the magistrates and Thanadars
is at present immeasurable ; and an infinite deal of
mischief is done by the latter and those under them,
of which the magistrates know nothing whatever.
In the first place, they levy a fee of one rupee from
every village at the festival of the Hooly in February ;
and another at that of the Duseyra in October ; and
in each Thanadar's jurisdiction there are from one
to two hundred villages. These and numerous other
* There is a superintendent of police for the province of
Bengal ; but in the north-western provinces his duties are divided
among the commissioners of revenue.
ADVANTAGES OF ROBBERY. 323
unauthorised exactions they share with those under
them ; and with the native officers about the person
of the magistrate, who, if not conciliated, can always
manage to make them appear unfit for their places.
A robbery affords a rich harvest. Some article of
stolen property is found in one man's house, and by
a little legerdemain it is conveyed to that of ano-
ther, both of whom are made to pay liberally ; the man
robbed also pays, and all the members of the village
community are made to do the same. They are all
called to the court of the Thanadar to give evidence,
as to what they have seen or heard regarding either the
fact^ or the persons in the remotest degree connected
with it — as to the arrests of the supposed offenders —
the search of their house — the character of their grand-
mothers and grandfathers ; and they are told, that they
are to be sent to the magistrate a hundred miles dis-
tant, and there made to stand at the door among a
hundred and fifty pairs of shoes, till his excellency the
Nazir, the under-sheriff of the court, may be pleased
to announce them to his highness the magistrate —
which of course he will not do without a consideration.
To escape all these threatened evils they pay
handsomely, and depart in peace. The Thanadar re-
ports that an attempt to rob a house by persons un-
known, had been defeated by his exertions, and the
good fortune of the magistrate ; and sends a liberal
share of spoil to those who are to read his report to
that functionary. This goes on more or less in every
Y 2
324 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
district, but more especially in those where the ma-
gistrate happens to be a man of violent temper, who
is always surrounded by knaves, because men who
have any regard for their character will not approach
him — or a weak, good-natured man, easily made to
believe anything, and managed by favourites — or one
too fond of field sports, or of music, painting, European
languages, literature, and sciences, or, lastly, of his
own ease.* Some magistrates think they can put down
crime by dismissing the Thanadar ; but this tends
''^ Mr. R., when appointed magistrate of the district of Fut-
tehpore on the Ganges, had a wish to translate theHenriade, and,
in order to secure leisure, he issued a proclamation to all the
Thanadars of his district to put down crime, declaring that
he would hold them responsible for what might be committed,
and dismiss from his situation every one who should suffer any to
be committed within his charge. This district, lying on the
borders of Oude, had been noted for the number and atrocious
character of its crimes. From that day all the periodical returns
went up to the superior court blank — not a crime was reported.
Astonished at this sudden result of the change of magistrates, the
superior court of Calcutta (the Sudder Nizamut Adawlut) re-
quested one of the judges, who was about to pass through the
district on his way down, to inquire into the nature of the sys-
tem, which seemed to work so well, with a view to its adoption
in other districts. He found crimes were more abundant than
ever ; and the Thanadars showed him the proclamation, which had
been understood as all such proclamations are, not as enjoining
vigilance in the prosecution of crime, but as prohibiting all report
of them, so as to save the magistrate trouhlcy and get him a good
name with his superiors !
POLICE GRIEVANCES. 325
only to prevent crimes being reported to him ; for in
such cases the feelings of the people are in exact ac-
cordance with the interests of the Thanadars ; and
crimes augment by the assurance of impunity thereby
given to criminals. The only remedy for all this evil
is, to fill up the great gulf between the magistrate and
Thanadar, by officers who shall be to him, what T
have described the patrol officers to be to the col-
lectors of Customs, at once the tapis of Prince Hosaen,
and the telescope of Prince Ali— a medium that will
enable him to be everywhere, and see everything !
And why is this remedy not applied ? Simply and
solely because such appointments would be given to
the uncovenanted, and might tend indirectly to dimi-
nish the appointments open to the covenanted ser-
vants of the Company. Young gentlemen of the
civil service are supposed to be doing the duties
which would be assigned to such officers while they
are at school as assistants to magistrates and col-
lectors ; and were this great gulf filled up by effi-
cient uncovenanted officers, they would have no
school to go to. There is no doubt some truth in
this ; but the welfare of a whole people should not
be sacrificed to keep this school or play-ground open
exclusively for them ; let them act for a time as
they would unwillingly do with the uncovenanted,
and they will learn much more than if they occupied
the ground exclusively and acted alone — they will
be always with people ready and willing to tell them
the real state of things, whereas, at present, they are
326 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
always with those who studiously conceal it from
them.
It is a common practice among Thanadars all
over the country, to connive at the residence within
their jurisdiction of gangs of robbers, on the con-
dition, that they shall not rob within those limits,
and shall give them a share of what they bring back
from their distant expeditions. They go out osten-
sibly in search of service, on the termination of the
rains of one season in October ; and return before
their commencement the next, in June ; but their
vocation is always well known to the police, and to
all the people of their neighbourhood ; and very often
to the magistrates themselves, who could, if they
would, secure them on their return with their
booty ; but this would not secure their conviction
unless the proprietors could be discovered, which
they scarcely ever could. Were the police officers
to seize them, they would be all finally acquitted and
released by the judges — the magistrate would get
into disrepute with his superiors, by the number of
acquittals compared with the convictions exhibited
in his monthly tables ; and he would vent his spleen
upon the poor Thanadar, who would, at the same
time, have incurred the resentment of the robbers ;
and between both, he would have no possible chance
of escape. He therefore consults his own interest
and his own ease by leaving them to carry on their
trade of robbery or murder unmolested; and his
master, the magistrate, is well pleased not to be
POLICE ANECDOTE. 327
pestered with charges against men whom he has no
chance of getting ultimately convicted. It was in
this way that so many hundred fjimilies of assassins
by profession, were able for so many generations to
reside in the most cultivated and populous parts of
our territories, and extend their depredations into
the remotest parts of India, before our system of
operations was brought to bear upon them in 1830.
Their profession was perfectly well known to the
people of the districts in which they resided, and to
the greater part of the police ; they murdered not
within their own district, and the police of that dis-
trict cared nothing about what they might do beyond
it.
The most respectable native gentleman in the city
and district, told me one day an amusing instance
of the proceedings of a native officer of that district,
which occurred about five years ago. " In a village
which he had purchased and let in farms, a shop-
keeper was one day superintending the cutting of
some sugar-cane which he had purchased from a
cultivator as it stood. His name was Girdaree, I
think, and the boy who was cutting it for him was
the son of a poor man called Mudaree. Girdaree
wanted to have the cane cut down as near as he
could to the ground, while the boy, to save himself
the trouble of stooping, would persist in cutting it
a good deal too high up. After admonishing him
several times, the shopkeeper gave him a smart
clout on the head. The boy, to prevent a repetition,
328 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
called out, * Murder! Girdaree has killed me — Gir-
daree has killed me !' His old father, who was at
work carrying away the cane at a little distance out
of sight, ran off to the village watchman, and in his
anger, told him that Girdaree had murdered his son.
The watchman went as fast as he could to the
Thanadar, or head police officer of the division, who
resided some miles distant. The Thanadar ordered
off his subordinate officer, the Jemadar, with half
a dozen policemen, to arrange everything for an
inquest on the body, by the time he should reach
the place, with all due pomp. The Jemadar went
to the house of the murderer, and dismounting,
ordered all the shopkeepers of the village, who were
many and respectable, to be forthwith seized, and
bound hand and feet. 'So,' said the Jemadar,
'you have all been aiding and abetting your friend in
the murder of poor Mudaree's only son !' ' May it
please your excellency, we have never heard of any
murder.' ' Impudent scoundrels,' roared the Jema-
dar ; ' does not the poor boy lie dead in the sugar-
cane field ? and is not his highness the Thanadar
coming to hold an inquest upon it ? and do you take
us for fools enough to believe that any scoundrel
among you would venture to commit a deliberate
murder without being aided and abetted by all the
rest ?' The village watchman began to feel some
apprehension that he had been too precipitate ; and
entreated the Jemadar to go first and see the body
of the boy. 'What do you take us for,' said the
POLICE ANECDOTE. 329
Jemadar, ' a thing without a stomach ? Do you
suppose that government servants can live and
labour on air ? Are we to go and examine bodies
upon empty stomachs ? Let his father take care of
the body, and let these shopkeeping murderers pro-
vide us something to eat/ Nine rupees worth of
sweetmeats, and materials for a feast, were forthwith
collected at the expense of the shopkeepers, who
stood bound, and waiting the arrival of his highness
the Thanadar, who was soon after seen approaching
majestically upon a richly caparisoned horse.
* What,' said the Jemadar, ' is there nobody to go
and receive his highness in due form V One of the
shopkeepers was untied, and presented with fifteen
rupees by his family, and those of the other shop-
keepers. These he took up and presented to his
highness, who deigned to receive them through one
of his train, and then dismounted and partook of the
feast that had been provided. 'Now,' said his highness,
' we will go and hold an inquest on the body of the
poor boy ;' and off moved all the great functionaries
of government to the sugar-cane field, with the
village watchman leading the way. The father of
the boy met them as they entered ; and was pointed
out to them by the village watchman. ' Where,'
said the Thanadar, 'is your poor boy?' 'There,'
said Mudaree, ' cutting the canes.' ' How cutting
the canes? Was he not murdered by the shop-
keepers ?' ' No,' said Mudaree, ' he was beaten by
Girdaree, and richly deserved it, 1 find.' Girdaiee
330 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and the boy were called up, and the little urchin said,
that he called out murder merely to prevent Gir-
daree from giving him another clout on the side of
the head. His father was then fined nine rupees
for giving a false alarm ; and Girdaree, fifteen for so
unmercifully beating the boy ; and they were made
to pay on the instant, under the the penalty of being
all sent off forty miles to the magistrate. Having
thus settled this very important affair, his highness
the Thanadar walked back to the shop, ordered all
the shopkeepers to be set at liberty, smoked his pipe,
mounted his horse and rode home, followed by all his
police officers ; and well pleased with his day's work."
The farmer of the village soon after made his
way to the city, and communicated the circum-
stances to my old friend, who happened to be
on intimate terms with the magistrate. He wrote
a polite note to the Thanadar to say, that he
should never get any rents from his estate if the
occupants were liable to such fines as these, and that
he should take the earliest opportunity of men-
tioning them to his friend, the magistrate. The
Thanadar ascertained that he was really in the habit
of visiting the magistrate, and communicating with
him freely ; and hushed up the matter by causing
all, save the expenses of the feast, to be paid back.
These are things of daily occurrence in all parts of
our dominions, and the Thanadars are not afraid to
play such " fantastic tricks," because all those under
and all those above them share more or less in the
ASSASSINS. 331
spoil, and are bound in honour to conceal them
from the European magistrate, whom it is the in-
terest of all to keep in the dark. They know that
the people will hardly ever complain, from the great
dislike they all have to appear in our courts, parti-
cularly when it is against any of the officers of those
courts, or their friends and creatures in the district
police.
When our operations commenced in 1830, these
assassins revelled over every road in India in gangs
of hundreds, without the fear of punishment from
divine or human laws ; but there is not now^, I believe,
a road in India infested by them. That our govern-
ment has still defects, and very great ones, must be
obvious to every one who has travelled much over
India with the requisite qualifications and dispo-
sition to observe ; but I believe, that in spite of all
the defects I have noticed above in our police
system, the life, property, and character of the inno-
cent are now more secure, and all their advantages
more freely enjoyed, than they ever were under any
former government with whose history we are ac-
quainted, or than they now are under any native
government in India. Those who think they are
not so, almost always refer to the reign of Shah
Jehan, when men like Tavernier travelled so securely
all over India with their bags of diamonds ; but I
would ask them, whether they think that the life,
property, and character of the innocent could be
anywhere very secure, or their advantages very
332 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
freely enjoyed, in a country where a man could do
openly with impunity what the traveller describes to
have been done by the Persian physician of the gover-
nor of Allahabad ? This governor being sickly, had in
attendance upon him eleven phi/sicians, one of whom
was an European gentleman of education, Claudius
Muelle, of Bourges. The chief favourite of the
eleven was, however, a Persian ; " who one day threw
his wife from the top of a battlement to the ground in
a fit of jealousy. He thought the fall would kill her,
but she had only a few ribs broken ; whereupon the
kindred of the woman came and demanded justice at
the feet of the governor. The governor sending
for the physician, commanded him to be gone, re-
solving to retain him no longer in his service. The
physician obeyed ; and putting his poor maimed,
wife in a palankeen, he set forward upon the road
with all his family. But he had not gone above
three or four days' journey from the city, when the
governor, finding himself worse than he was wont to
be, sent to recall him ; which the physician perceiving,
stabbed his wife, his four children, and thirteen
female slaves, and returned again to the Governor,
who said not a word to him, but entertained him
again in his service." This occurred within Taver-
nier's own knowledge, and about the time he visited
Allahabad ; and is related as by no means a very ex-
traordinary circumstance.
333
CHAPTER XXII.
RENT-FREE TENURES — RIGHT OF GOVERNMENTS TO RESUME
SUCH GRANTS.
On the 27th, we went on fifteen miles to Begum-
abad, over a sandy and level country. All the
peasantry along the roads were busy watering their
fields ; and the singing of the man who stood at the
well to tell the other who guides the bullocks when
to pull, after the leather bucket had been filled at
the bottom, and when to stop as it reached the top,
was extremely pleasing. It is said that Janseyn, of
Delhi, the most celebrated singer they have ever
had in India, used to spend a great part of his time
in these fields listening to the simple melodies of
these water-drawers, which he learned to imitate and
apply to his more finished vocal music. Popular belief
ascribes to Janseyn the power of stopping the river
Jumna in its course. His contemporary and rival,
Brij Bowla, who, according to popular belief, could
split a rock with a single note, is said to have learned
334 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
his base from the noise of the stone-mills which the
women use in grinding the corn for their families.
Janseyn was a Brahman from Patna, who entered
the service of the Emperor Akbar, became a Mus-
sulman, and after the service of tw^enty-seven years,
during which he was much beloved by the Emperor
and all his court, he died at Gvvalior in the 34th
year of the Emperor's reign. His tomb is still to
be seen at Gwalior. All his descendants are said to
have a talent for music, and they have all Seyn
added to their names.
While Madhojie Scindheea, the Gwalior chief,
was prime minister, he made the Emperor assign to
his daughter, the Balabae, in jageer or rent-free
tenure, ninety-five villages, rated in the imperial
sunuds at three lacks of rupees a year. When the
Emperor had been released from the " durance vile"
in which he was kept by Dowlut Rao Scindheea, the
adopted son of this chief, by the army under Lord
Lake, in 1803, and the countries in which these
villages were situated, taken possession of, she was
permitted to retain them on condition that they
were to escheat to us on her death. She died
in 1834, and we took possession of the villages which
now yield, it is said, four lacks of rupees a year.
Begumabad was one of them. It paid to the
Balabae only six hundred rupees a year, but it
pays now to us six and twenty hundred rupees ; but
the farmers and cultivators do not pay a farthing-
more — the difference was taken by the favourite to
RENT-FREE LANDS. 335
whom she assigned the duties of collection, and who
always took as much as he could get from them, and
paid as little as he could to her. The tomb of the
old collector stood near my tents, and his son, who
who came to visit it, told me, that he had heard
from Gwalior, that a new Governor-general was
about to arrive, who would probably order the villages
to be given back, when he should be made collector
of this village, as his father had been.
Had our government acted by all the rent-free
lands in our territories on the same principle, they
would have saved themselves a vast deal of expense,
trouble, and odium. The justice of declaring all
lands liable to resumption on the death of the pre-
sent incumbents when not given by competent autho-
rity, for, and actually applied to the maintenance of
religious, charitable, educational, or other establish-
ments of manifest public utility, would never have
been for a moment questioned by the people of
India ; because they would have all known, that it
was in accordance with the usages of the country.
If, at the same time that we declared all land liable
to resumption, when not assigned by such authority
and for such purposes and actually applied to them,
we had declared that all grants by competent autho-
rity registered in due form before the death of the
present incumbents, should be liable on their death
to the payment of government of only a quarter or
half the rent arising from them, it would have been
universally hailed as an act of great liberality, highly
6
336 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
calculated to make our reign popular. As it is, we
have admitted the right of former rulers of all
descriptions to alienate in perpetuity the land, the
principal source of the revenue of the state, in favour
of their relatives, friends, and favourites, leaving upon
the holders the burthen of proving, at a ruinous cost
in fees and bribes, through court after court, that
these alienations had been made by the authorities
we declare competent, before the time prescribed ; and
we have thus given rise to an infinite deal of fraud,
perjury, and forgery, and to the opinion, I fear, very
generally prevalent, that we are anxious to take advan-
tage of unavoidable flaws in the proof required, to
trick them out of their lands by tedious judicial pro-
ceedings, while we profess to be desirous that they
should retain them. In this, we have done our-
selves great injustice.
Though these lands were often held for many gene-
rations under former governments, and for the ex-
clusive benefit of the holders, it was almost always,
when they were of any value, in collusion with the
local authorities, who concealed the circumstances
from their sovereign for a certain stipulated sum or
share of the rents while they held oflSce. This of
course the holders were always willing to pay, know-
ing that no sovereign would hesitate much to resume
the lands, should the circumstance of their holdinof
them for their own private use alone, be ever brought
to his notice. The local authorities were no doubt
always willing to take a moderate share of the rent.
RENT-FREE TENURE. 337
knowing that they would get nothing should the
lands be resumed by the sovereign. Sometimes the
lands granted were either at the time the grant was
made, or became soon after, waste and depopulated,
in consequence of invasion or internal disorders ; and
remaining in this state for many generations, the in-
tervening sovereigns either knew nothing or cared
nothing about the grants. Under our rule they be-
came by degrees again cultivated and peopled ; and,
in consequence, valuable, not by the exertions of the
rent-free holders, for they were seldom known to do
anything but collect the rents ; but by those of the
farmers and cultivators who pay them.
When Saadut Ally Khan, the sovereign of Oude,
ceded Rohilcund and other districts to the honour-
able Company in lieu of tribute in 1801, he resumed
every inch of land held in rent-free tenure within
the territories that remained with him, without con-
descending to assign any other reason than state
necessity. The measure created a good deal of
distress, particularly among the educated classes;
but not so much as a similar measure would have
created within our territories, because all his reve-
nues are expended in the maintenance of establish-
ments formed exclusively out of the members of
Oude families, and retained within the country,
while ours are sent to pay establishments formed and
maintained at a distance ; and those whose lands are
resumed always find it exceedingly difficult to get
employment suitable to their condition.
VOL. II. z
338 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
The face of the country between Delhi and
Meerut is sadly denuded of its groves ; not a grove
or an avenue is to be seen anywhere, and but few fine
solitary trees. I asked the people of the cause, and
was told by the old men of the village, that they
remembered well when the Seikh chiefs w4io now
bask under the sunshine of our protection, used to
come over at the head of dullus (bodies) of ten or
twelve thousand horse each, and plunder and lay
waste with fire and sword, at every returning harvest,
the fine country which I now saw covered with rich
sheets of cultivation, and which they had rendered a
desolate waste, " without a man to make or a man to
grant a petition," when Lord Lake came among
them. They were, they say, looking on at a dis-
tance when he fought the battle of Delhi, and drove
the Mahrattas, who were almost as bad as the Seikhs,
into the Jumna river, where ten thousand of them
were drowned. The people of all classes in upper
India feel the same reverence as our native soldiery
for the name of this admirable soldier, and most
worthy man, who did so much to promote our in-
terests and sustain our reputation in this country.
The most beautiful trees in India are the bur,
(banyan,) the peepul, and the tamarind. The two
first are of the fig tribe, and their greatest enemies
are the elephants and camels of our public establish-
ments and public servants, who prey upon them wher-
ever they can find them when under the protection of
their masters or keepers, who, when appealed to
DEATH OF THE BEGUM SUMROO. 339
generally evince a very philosophical disregard to the
feeling of either property or piety involved in the
trespass. It is consequently in the dryest and hot-
test parts of the country where the shade of these
trees is most vranted, that it is least to be found ;
because it is there that camels thrive best, and are
most kept, and it is most difficult to save such trees
from their depredations.
In the evening, a trooper passed our tents on his
way in great haste from Meerut to Delhi, to announce
the death of the poor old Begum Sumroo, which
had taken place the day before at her little capital
of Sirdhannah. For five and twenty years had I
been looking forward to the opportunity of seeing
this very extraordinary woman, whose history had
interested me more than that of any other character
in India during my time ; and I was sadly disap-
pointed to hear of her death when within two or
three stages of her capital.
z2
340
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE STATION OF MEERUT ATALEES WHO DANCE AND SING
GRATIS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE POOR.
On the 20th, we went on twelve miles to Meerut,
and encamped close to the Sooruj Kond, so called
after Sooroojmul, the Jat chief of Deeg, whose tomb
I have described at Goverdhun. He built here a
very large tank, at the recommendation of the spirit
of a Hindoo saint, Munohur Nath, whose remains
had been burned here more than two hundred years
before, and whose spirit appeared to the Jat chief in
a dreamy as he was encamped here with his army
during one of his little kingdom- taking expeditions.
This is a noble work, with a fine sheet of water, and
flights of steps of pucka masonry from the top to its
edge all round. The whole is kept in repair by our
government. About half a mile to the north-west of
the tank stands the tomb of Shah Peer, a Mahomedan
saint, who is said to have descended from the moun-
GRATUITOUS DANCING. 341
tains with the Hindoo, and to have been bis bosom
friend up to the day of his death. Both are said to have
worked many wonderful miracles among the people of
the surrounding country, who used to see them, accord-
ing to popular belief, quietly taking their morning
ride together upon the backs of two enormous tigers*
who came every mornings at the appointed hour from
the distant jungle! The Hindoo is said to have
been very fond of music ; and though he has been
now dead some three centuries, a crowd of amateurs
(atalees) assemble every Sunday afternoon at his
shrine, on the bank of the tank, and sing gratis,
and in a very pleasing style, to an immense con-
course of people, who assemble to hear them, and
to solicit the spirit of the old saint, softened by their
melodies. At the tomb of the Mahomedan saint, a
number of professional dancers and singers assemble
every Thursday afternoon, and dance, sing, and play
gratis to a large concourse of people, who make
offerings of food to the poor, and implore the inter-
cession of the old man with the Deity in return.
The Mahomedans tomb is large and handsome,
and built of red sandstone, inlaid with marble, but
without any cupola, that there may be no curtain
between him and heaven when he gets out of his
" last long sleep" at the resurrection. Not far from
his tomb is another, over the bones of a pilgrim they
call " Gunjishun," or the granary of scie?ice. Pro-
fessional singers and dancers attend it every Friday
afternoon, and display their talents gratis to a large
342 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
concourse, who bestow what they can in charity to
the poor, who assemble on all these occasions to take
what they can get. Another much frequented tomb
lies over a Mahomedan saint, who has not been dead
more than three years, named Gohur Sa. He owes
his canonization to a few circumstances of recent
occurrence, which are, however, universally believed.
Mr. Smith, an enterprising merchant of Meerut,
who had raised a large windmill for grinding corn in
the Sudder Buzar, is said to have abused the old man
as he was one day passing by, and looked with some
contempt on his method of grinding, which was to
take the bread from the mouths of so many old
widows. " My child," said the old saint, " amuse
thyself with this toy of thine, for it has but a few
days to run." In four days from that time, the
machine stopped. Poor Mr. Smith could not afford
to set it going again, and it went to ruin. The
whole native population of Meerut considered this a
miracle of Gohur Sa ! Just before his death, the
country round Meerut was under water, and a great
many houses fell, from incessant rain. The old man
took up his residence, during this time, in a large
surae in the town, but finding his end approach, he
desired those who had taken shelter with him, to
have him t^ken to the jungle where he now reposes.
They did so, and the instant they left the building it
fell to the ground. Many who saw it, told me they
had no doubt, that the virtues of the old man had
sustained it while he was there, and prevented its
TOMBS OF SAINTS. 343
crushing all who were in it. The tomb was built
over his remains, by a Hindoo officer of the court,
who had been long out of employment, and in great
affliction. He had no sooner completed the tomb,
and implored the aid of the old man, than he got
into excellent service, and has been ever since a
happy man. He makes regular offerings to his
shrine, as a grateful return for the saint's kindness to
him in his hour of need. Professional singers and
dancers display their talents here gratis, as at the
other tombs, every Wednesday afternoon.
The ground all round these tombs is becoming
crowded with the graves of people, who, in their last
moments, request to be buried (Zeer i saea) under
the shadow of these saints, who, in their lifetime, are
all said to have despised the pomps and vanities of
this life ; and to have taken nothing from their dis-
ciples and worshippers but what was indispensably
necessary to support existence — food being the only
thing offered and accepted, and that taken only
when they happened to be very hungry. Happy in-
deed was the man whose dish was put forward when
the saint's appetite happened to be sharp! The
death of the poor old Begum has, it is said, just
canonized another saint, Shakir Shah, who lies buried
at Sirdhanna, but is claimed by the people of
Meerut, among whom he lived, till about five years
ago, when he desired to be taken to Sirdhanna,
where he found the old lady very dangerously ill,
and not expected to live. He was himself very old
344 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
and ill when he set out from Meerut ; and the
journey is said to have shaken him so much, that he
found his end approaching, and sent a messenger to
the princess in these words : " Aea toree, chulee
hum" — " thine came, but I go ;" that is, " Death
came for thee, but I go in thy place ;" and he told
those around him that she had precisely five years
more to live. She is said to have caused a tomb to
be built over him, and is believed by the people to
have died that day five years.
All these things I learned as I wandered among
the tombs of the old saints the first few evenings
after my arrival at Meerut. I was interested in
their history from the circumstance that amateur
singers and professional dancers and musicians should
display their talents at their shrines gratis, for the
sake of getting alms for the poor of the place, given in
their name — a thing I had never before heard of —
though the custom prevails no doubt in other places ;
and that Mussulmans and Hindoos should join
promiscuously in their devotions and charities at all
these shrines. Munohur Nath's shrine, though he
was a Hindoo, is attended by as many Mussulman as
Hindoo pilgrims. He is said to have taken the
samdd, that is, to have buried himself alive in this
place, as an offering to the Deity. Men who are
afflicted with leprosy, or any other incurable disease
in India, often take the samaud, that is, bury or
drown themselves with due ceremonies, by which
they are considered as acceptable sacrifices to the
RELIGIOUS SUICIDE. 345
Deity. I once knew a Hindoo gentleman, of great
wealth and respectability, and of high rank, under
the government of Nagpore, who came to the river
Nerbudda, two hundred miles, attended by a large
retinue, to take the samaud in due form, from a pain-
ful disease, which the doctors pronounced incurable.
After taking an affectionate leave of all his family
and friends, he embarked on board the boat, which
took him into the deepest part of the river. He then
loaded himself with sand, as a sportsman who is re-
quired to carry weights in a race loads himself with
shot, and stepping into the water disappeared. The
funeral ceremonies were then performed, and his
family, friends, and followers returned to Nagpore,
conscious that they had all done what they had been
taught to consider their duty. Many poor men do
the same every year when afflicted by any painful
disease that they consider incurable. The only way
to prevent this is to carry out the plan now in pro-
gress, of giving to India in an accessible shape the
medical science of Europe — a plan first adopted
under Lord W. Bentinck, prosecuted by Lord Auck-
land, and superintended by two able and excellent
men — Doctors Goodeve and O'Shoughnessy. It will
be one of the greatest blessings that India has ever
received from Ensfland.
346
CHAPTER XXIV.
SUBDIVISION OF LANDS WANT OF GRADATIONS OF RANK-
TAXES.
The country between Delhi and Meerut is well
cultivated, and rich in the latent power of its soil ;
but there is here, as everywhere else in the upper
provinces, a lamentable want of gradations in society,
from the eternal subdivision of property in land ; and
the want of that concentration of capital in com-
merce and manufactures which characterise Euro-
pean— or I may take a wider range, and say Christian
societies. Where, as in India, the landlords' share
of the annual returns from the soil has been always
taken by the government as the most legitimate
fund for the payment of its public establishments ;
aiid the estates of the farmers, and the holdings of
the immediate cultivators of the soil, are liable to be
subdivided in equal shares among the sons in every
8
TAXATION IN INDIA. 347
succeeding generation, the land can never aid much
directly in giving to society that, without which no
society can possibly be well organised — a gradation
of rank. Were the government to alter the system,
to give up all the rent of the lands, and thereby con-
vert all the farmers into proprietors of their estates,
the case would not be much altered, while the
Hindoo and Mahomedan law of inheritance remained
the same ; for the eternal subdivision would still go
on, and reduce all connected with the soil to one
common level ; and the people would be harassed
with a multiplicity of taxes, from which they are now
free, that would have to be imposed to supply the
place of the rent given up. The agricultural capi-
talists who derived their incomes from the interest of
money advanced to the farmers and cultivators for
subsistence and the purchase of stock, were com-
monly men of rank and influence in society ; but
they were never a numerous class. The mass of the
people in India are really not at present sensible
that they pay any taxes at all. The only necessary
of life, whose price is at all increased by taxes, is salt,
and the consumer is hardly aware of this increase.
The natives never eat salted meat ; and though they
require a great deal of salt, living, as they do, so
much on vegetable food ; still they purchase it in
such small quantities from day to day as they re-
quire it, that they really never think of the tax that
may have been paid upon it in its progress. To un-
derstand the nature of taxation in India, an English-
348 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
man should suppose that all the non-farming land-
holders of his native country had, a century or two
ago, consented to resign their property into the
hands of their sovereign, for the maintenance of his
civil functionaries, army, navy, church, and public cre-
ditors— and then suddenly disappeared from the com-
munity, leaving, to till the lands, merely the farmers
and the cultivators ; and that their forty millions of
rent were just the sum that the government now
required to pay all these four great establishments.
To understand the nature of the public debt of Eng-
land, a man has only to suppose one great national
establishment, twice as large as those of the civil
functionaries, the army, navy, and the church toge-
ther, and composed of members with fixed salaries,
who purchased their commissions from the " wisdom
of our ancestors,'' with liberty to sell them to whom
they please — who have no duty to perform for the
public,* and have, like Adam and Eve, the privilege
of going to " seek their place of rest" in what part of
the world they please — a privilege of which they will
of course be found more and more anxious to avail
themselves, as taxation presses on the one side, and
prohibition to the import of the necessaries of life
diminishes the means of paying them on the other.
The repeal of the Corn Laws may give a new lift to
England — it may greatly increase the foreign de-
* They have no duty to perform as creditors ; but as citizens
of an enlightened nation they no doubt perform many of them,
very important ones.
TAXATION IN ENGLAND. 349
mand for the produce of its manufacturing industry —
it may invite back a large portion of those who now
spend their incomes in foreign countries, and prevent
from going abroad to reside, a vast number who
would otherwise go. These laws must soon be re-
pealed, or England must greatly reduce one or other
of its great establishments — the national debt, the
church, the army, or the navy. The Corn Laws press
upon England just in the same manner as the dis-
covery of the passage to India, by the Cape of Good
Hope, pressed upon Venice and the other states,
whose welfare depended upon the transit of the pro-
duce of India by land. But the navigation of the
Cape benefited all other European nations at the
same time that it pressed upon those particular
states, by giving them all the produce of India at
cheaper rates than they would otherwise have got it,
and by opening the markets of India to the produce
of all other European nations. The Corn Laws be-
nefit only one small section of the people of England,
while they weigh, like an incubus, upon the vital
energies of all the rest ; and, at the same time, in-
jure all other nations by preventing their getting the
produce of manufacturing industry so cheap as they
would otherwise get it. They have not, therefore,
the merit of benefiting other nations, at the same
time that they crush their own.
For some twenty or thirty years of our rule, too
many of the collectors of our land revenue, in what
we call the western provinces, sought the " bubble
350 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
reputation" in an increase of assessment upon the
lands of their district every five years, when the set-
tlement was renewed. The more the assessment was
increased, the greater was the praise bestowed upon
the collector by the revenue boards, or the revenue
secretary to government, in the name of the
Governor-General of India. These collectors found
an easy mode of acquiring this reputation — they left
the settlements to their native officers, and shut their
ears to all complaints of grievances, till they had re-
duced all the landholders of their districts to one
common level of beggary, without stock, character,
or credit ; and transferred a great portion of their
estates to the native officers of their own courts
through the medium of the auction sales that took
place for the arrears, or pretended arrears, of revenue.
A better feeling has for some years past prevailed ;
and collectors have sought their reputation in a real
knowledge of their duties, and a real good feeling
towards the farmers and cultivators of their districts.
For this better tone of feeling, the western provinces
are, I believe, chiefly indebted to Mr. R. M. Bird,
of the revenue board, one of the most able public
officers now in India. A settlement for twenty
years is now in progress that will leave the farmers
at least thirty-five per cent., upon the gross collec-
tions, from the immediate cultivators of the soil,*
* Fifty per cent, may be considered as the average rate left to
the lessees or proprietors of estates under this new settlement ;
and if they take on an average one-third of the gross produce.
RYUTWAR SYSTEM. 351
that is, the amount of the revenue demandable by go-
vernment from the estate, will be that less than what
the farmer will, and would, under any circumstances,
levy from the cultivators in his detailed settlement.
The farmer lets all the land of his estate out to cul-
tivators, and takes in money this rate of profit for
his expense, trouble, and risk ; or he lets out to the
cultivators enough to pay the government demand,
and tills the rest with his own stock, rent free. When
a division takes place between his sons, they either
divide the estate, and become each responsible for
his particular share, or they divide the profits, and
remain collectively responsible to government for the
whole, leaving one member of the family registered
as the lessee and responsible head.
In the Ryutwar system of southern India, go-
vernment officers, removable at the pleasure of the
government collector, are substituted for these
farmers, or more properly proprietors of estates ;
and a system more prejudicial to the best interests
of society, could not well be devised by the ingenuity
of man. It has been supposed by some theorists,
who are practically unacquainted with agriculture in
this or any other country, that all who have any in-
terest in the land above the rank of cultivator, or
ploughman, are mere drones, or useless consumers of
that rent which, under judicious management, might
government takes two-ninths. But we may rate the government
share of the produce actually taken at one-fifth as the maximum,
and one-tenth as the minimum.
352 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
be added to the revenues of government — that all
which they get might, and ought to be, either left
with the cultivators or taken by the government.
At the head of these is the justly celebrated historian
Mr. Mill. But men who understand the subject
practically, know that the intermediate agency of a
farmer, who has a feeling of permanent interest in
the estate, or an interest for a long period, is a thou-
sand times better, both for the government and the
people, than that of a government officer of any de-
scription, much less that of one removable at the will
of the collector. Government can always get more
revenue from a village under the management of
the farmer ; the character of the cultivators and vil-
lage community generally is much better ; the tillage
is much better ; and the produce, from more careful
weeding and attention of all kinds, sells much better
in the market. The better character of the culti-
vators enables them to get the loans they require to
purchase stock, and to pay the government demand
on more moderate terms from the capitalists, who
rely upon the farmer, to aid in the recovery of
their outlays, without reference to civil courts, which
are ruinous media, as well in India as in other places.
The farmer or landlord finds, in the same manner,
that he can get much more from lands let out on
lease to the cultivators or yeomen, who depend upon
their own character, credit, and stock, than he can
from similar lands cultivated with his own stock, and
hired labourers can never be got to labour either so
LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE. 353
long or so well. The labour of the Indian cultivating
lessee is always applied in the proper quantity, and
at the proper time and place — that of the hired field-
labourer hardly ever is. The skilful coachmaker always
puts on the precise quantity of iron required to make
his coach strong, because he knows where it is re-
quired ; his coach is, at the same time, as light as it
can be, with safety. The unskilful workman either
puts on too much, and makes his coach heavy ;
or he puts it in the wrong place, and leaves it
weak.
If government extends the twenty years' settle-
ment, now in progress, to fifty years or more, they
will confer a great blessing upon the people, and
they might, perhaps, do it on the condition that the
incumbent consented to allow the lease to descend
undivided to his heirs by the law of primogeniture.
To this condition all classes would readily agree, for
I have heard Hindoo and Mahomedan landholders
all equally lament the evil effects of the laws by
which families are so quickly and inevitably broken
up ; and say, " that it is the duty of government to
take advantage of their power, as the great pro-
prietor and leaser of all the lands, to prevent the
evil, by declaring leases indivisable. There would
then," they say, " be always one head to assist in
maintaining the widows and orphans of deceased
members, in educating his brothers and nephews ;
and by his influence and respectability, procuring
employment for them." In such men, with feelings
VOL. II. A A
354
RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of permanent interest in their estates, and in the
stability of the government that secured them pos-
session on such favourable terms, and with the
means of educating their children, we should by-and-
by find our best support, and society its best ele-
ment. The law of primogeniture at present prevails
only where it is most mischievous under our rule,
among the feudal chiefs, whose ancestors rose to dis-
tinction, and acquired their possessions by rapine in
times of invasion and civil wars. This law among
them tends to perpetuate the desire to maintain
those military establishments, by which the founders
of their families rose, in the hope that the times of
invasion and civil wars may return, and open to
them a similar field for exertion. It fosters a class
of powerful men, essentially and irredeemably opposed
in feeling, not only to our rule, but to settled go-
vernment under any rule ; and the sooner the Hindoo
law of inheritance is allowed by the paramount
power, to take its course among these feudal chiefs, the
better for society. There is always a strong tendency
to it, in the desire of the younger brothers, to share
in the loaves and fishes ; and this tendency is checked
only by the injudicious interposition of our autho-
rity.
To give India the advantage of free institutions,
or all the blessings of which she is capable, under an
enlightened paternal government, nothing is more
essential than the supercession of this feudal aristo-
cracy by one founded upon other bases, and, above
ARISTOCRACY OF TRADE. 355
all, upon that of the concentration of capital in com-
merce and manufactures. Nothing tends so much
to prevent the accumulation and concentration of
capital over India, as this feudal aristocracy which
tends everywhere to destroy that feeling of security
without which men will nowhere accumulate and
concentrate it. They do so, not only by those intrigues
and combinations against the paramount power,
which keep alive the dread of internal wars and
foreign invasion, but by those gangs of robbers and
murderers which they foster and locate upon their
estates to prey upon the more favoured or better
governed territories around them. From those gangs
of freebooters, which are to be found upon the
estate of almost every native chief, no accumulation
of moveable property of any value is ever for a mo-
ment considered safe, and those who happen to have
any such are always in dread of losing, not only their
property, but their lives along with it, for these gangs,
secure in the protection of such chief, are reckless
in their attack, and kill all who happen to come in
their way.
A 2
356
CHAPTER XXV.
MEERUT ANGLO-INDIAN SOCIETY.
Meerut is a large station for military and civil
establishments ; it is the residence of a civil com-
missioner, a judge, a magistrate, a collector of land
revenue, and all their assistants and establishments.
There are the major-general, commanding the divi-
sion ; the brigadier, commanding the station ; four
troops of horse, and a company of foot artillery.
One regiment of European cavalry, one of European
infantry, one of native cavalry, and three of native
infantry.* It is justly considered the healthiest
* In India officers have much better opportunities, in time of
peace, to learn how to handle troops than in England, from
having them more concentrated in large stations, with fine open
plains to exercise upon. During the whole of the cold season,
from the beginning of November to the end of February, the
troops are at large stations exercised in brigades, and the artillery,
cavalry, and infantry together.
FEMALE DISSIPATION. 357
station in India, for both Europeans and natives,
and I visited it in the latter end of the cold, which
is the healthiest season of the year ; yet the Euro-
pean ladies were looking as if they had all come out
of their graves, and talking of the necessity of going
off to the mountains, to renovate as soon as the hot
weather should set in. They had literally been fagging
themselves to death with gaiety, at this the gayest and
most delightful of all Indian stations, during the cold
months, when they ought to have been laying in a
store of strength to carry them through the trying
seasons of the hot winds and rains. Up every night,
and all night, at balls and suppers, they could never
go out to breathe the fresh air of the morning ; and
were looking wretchedly ill, while the European
soldiers from the barracks seemed as fresh as if they
had never left their native land ! There is no doubt
that sitting up late at night is extremely prejudicial
to the health of Europeans in India. I have never
seen the European, male or female, that could stand
it long, however temperate in habits ; and an old
friend of mine once told me, that if he went to bed
a little exhilarated every night at ten o'clock, and
took his ride in the morning, he found himself much
better than if he sat up till twelve or one o'clock
without drinking, and lay a-bed in the mornings.
Almost all the gay pleasures of society in India are
enjoyed at night ; and as ladies here, as everywhere
else in Christian societies, are the life and soul of all
good parties, as of all good novels, they often, to
358 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
oblige others, sit up late, much against their own
inclinations, and even their judgments, aware, as they
are, that they are gradually sinking under the undue
exertions.
When I first came to India there were a few
ladies of the old school still much looked up to in
Calcutta, and among the rest the grandmother of
the Earl of Liverpool, the old Begum Johnstone,
then between seventy and eighty years of age.*' All
these old ladies prided themselves upon keeping up
old usages. They used to dine in the afternoon at
four or five o'clock — take their airing after dinner in
their carriages ; and from the time they returned,
till ten at night, their houses were lit up in their
best style, and thrown open for the reception of
visitors. All who were on visiting terms came at
this time, with any strangers whom they wished to
introduce, and enjoyed each other's society; there
were music and dancing for the young, and cards for
the old, when the party assembled happened to be
large enough ; and a few who had been previously
invited staid supper. I often visited the old Begum
Johnstone at this hour, and met at her house the
first people in the country, for all people, including
the Governor-general himself, delighted to honour
* The late Earl of Liverpool, then Mr. Jenkinson, married
this old lady's daughter. He was always very attentive to her,
and she used, with feelings of great pride and pleasure, to display
the contents of the boxes of milHnery which he used every year
to send out to her.
THE BEGUM JOHNSTONE. 359
this old lady, the widow of a Governor-general of
India, and the mother-in-law of a prime minister of
England. She was at Moorshedabad when Sooruj-
od-Doula marched from that place at the head of
the army, that took and plundered Calcutta, and
caused so many Europeans to perish in the black
hole; and she was herself saved from becoming a
member of his seraglio, or perishing with the rest, by
the circumstance of her being far gone in her preg-
nancy, which caused her to be made over to a Dutch
factory.
She had been a very beautiful woman, and had
been several times married ; the pictures of all her
husbands being hung round her noble drawing-room
in Calcutta, covered during the day with crimson
cloth, to save them from the dust, and uncovered at
night only on particular occasions. One evening
Mrs. Crommelin, a friend of mine, pointing to one of
them, asked the old lady his name. " Really I can-
not at this moment tell you, my dear ; my memory
is very bad, (striking her forehead with her right
hand, as she leaned with her left arm in Mrs. Crom-
melin's,) but I shall recollect in a few minutes."
The old lady's last husband was a clergyman, one of
the presidency chaplains, Mr. Johnstone, whom she
found too gay, and persuaded to go home upon an
annuity of eight hundred a year, which she settled
upon him for life. The bulk of her fortune went
to Lord Liverpool, the rest to her grandchildren —
the Rickets, Watts, and others.
360 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Since those days, the modes of intercourse in
India have much altered. Societies at all the sta-
tions, beyond the three capitals of Calcutta, Madras,
and Bombay, is confined almost exclusively to the
members of the civil and military services, who sel-
dom remain long at the same station — the military
officers hardly ever more than three years, and the
civil hardly ever so long. At disagreeable stations,
the civil servants seldom remain so many months.
Every new-comer calls in the forenoon upon all that
are at the station when he arrives ; and they return
his call at the same hour soon after. If he is a mar-
ried man, the married men, upon whom he has called*
take their wives to call upon his ; and he takes his
to return the call of theirs. These calls are all in-
dispensable ; and, being made in the forenoon, be-
come very disagreeable in the hot season : all com-
plain of them, yet no one foregoes his claim upon
them ; and till the claim is fulfilled, people will not
recognise each other as acquaintances. Unmarried
officers generally dine in the evening, because it is
a more convenient hour for the mess ; and married
civil functionaries do the same, because it is more
convenient for their office work. If you invite those
who dine at that hour to spend the evening with
you, you must invite them to dinner even in the hot
weather ; and if they invite you, it is to dinner. This
makes intercourse somewhat heavy at all times, but
more especially so in the hot season, when a table
covered with animal food is sickening to any person
PLAN OF LIVING. 361
without a keen appetite, and stupifying to those who
have it. No one thinks of inviting people to a din-
ner and ball — it would be vandalism ; and when you
invite them, as is always the case, to come after
dinner, the ball never begins till late at night, and
seldom ends till late in the morning ! With all its
disadvantages, however, I think dining in the even-
ing much better for those who are in health, than
dining in the afternoon, provided people can avoid
the intermediate meal of tiffin. No person in India
should eat animal food more than once a day ; and
people who dine in the evening generally eat less
than they would if they dined in the afternoon. A
light breakfast at nine ; biscuit, or a slice of toast
with a glass of water, or soda-water, at two o'clock,
and dinner, after the evening exercise, is the plan
which I should recommend every European to adopt
in India as the most agreeable. When their diges-
tive powers get out of order, people must do as the
doctors tell them.
There is, I believe, no society in which there is
more real urbanity of manners than in that of India —
a more general disposition on the part of its different
members to sacrifice their own comforts and conve-
nience to those of others, and to make those around
them happy, without letting them see that it costs
them an effort to do so. There is assuredly no so-
ciety where the members are more generally free
from those corroding cares and anxieties which
** weigh upon the hearts" of men whose incomes are
362 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
precarious, and position in the world uncertain.
They receive their salaries on a certain day every
month, whatever may be the state of the seasons, or
of trade ; they pay no taxes, they rise in the several
services by rotation ; religious feelings and opinions
are by common consent left as a question between
man and his Maker ; no one ever thinks of question-
ing another about them, nor would he be tolerated
if he did so. Most people take it for granted, that
those which they got from their parents were the
right ones ; and as such they cherish them. They
remember, with feelings of filial piety, the prayers
which they, in their infancy, offered to their Maker,
while kneeling by the side of their mothers; and
they continue to offer them up through life, with the
same feelings and the same hopes.
Differences of political opinion, which agitate so-
ciety so much in England and other countries, where
every man believes that his own personal interests
must always be more or less affected by the predo-
minance of one party over another, are no doubt a
source of much interest to people in India ; but they
scarcely ever excite any angry passions among them.
The tempests by which the political atmosphere of
the world is cleared and purged of all its morbid in-
fluences, burst not upon us — we see them at a dis-
tance— we know that they are working good for all
mankind ; and we feel for those who boldly expose
themselves to their " pitiless peltings," as men feel
for the sailors whom they suppose to be exposed on
SOCIEEY IN INDIA. 363
the ocean to the storm, while they listen to it from
their beds or their winter firesides. We discuss all
political opinions, and all the great questions which
they affect, with the calmness of philosophers; not with-
out emotion certainly, but without passion : we have
no share in returning members to parliament — we
feel no dread of those injuries, indignities, and ca^
lumnies to which those who have are too often ex-
posed ; and we are free from the bitterness of feel-
ings which always attend them. How exalted, how
glorious has been the destiny of England, to spread
over so vast a portion of the globe, her literature,
her language, and her free institutions ! How ought
the sense of this high destiny to animate her sons in
their efforts to perfect those institutions which they
have formed by slow degrees from feudal barbarism ;
to make them, in reality, as perfect as they would
have them appear to the world to be in theory, that
rising nations may love and honour the source
whence they derive theirs, and continue to look to it
for improvement.
We return to the society of our wives and chil-
dren after the labours of the day are over, with
tempers unruffled by collision with political and re-
ligious antagonists, by unfavourable changes in the
state of the seasons and the markets, and the other
circumstances which affect so much the incomes and
prospects of our friends at home. We must look to
them for the chief pleasures of our lives, and know
that they must look to us for theirs ; and if anything
364 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
has crossed us we try to conceal it from them. There
is in India a strong feeling of mutual dependence,
that prevents little domestic misunderstandings be-
tween man and wife from growing into quarrels so
often as in other countries, where this is less preva-
lent. Men have not here their clubs, nor their wives
their little coteries, to fly to when disposed to make
serious matters out of trifles ; and both are in conse-
quence much inclined to bear and forbear. There
are, of course, on the other hand, evils in India that
people have not to contend with at home ; but, on
the whole, those who are disposed to look on the
fair, as well as on the dark side of all around them,
can enjoy life in India very much, as long as they
and those dear to them are free from physical pain.
We everywhere find too many disposed to look upon
the dark side of all that is present, and the bright
side of all that is distant in time and place — always
miserable themselves, be where they will ; and making
all around them miserable: this commonly arises
from indigestion ; and this from a habit of eating and
drinking in a hot, as they would in a cold climate ;
and giving their stomachs too much to do, as if
they were the only parts of the human frame whose
energies were unrelaxed by the temperature of tro-
pical climates. There is, however, one great defect
in Anglo-Indian society ; it is composed too exclu-
sively of the servants of government, civil, military,
and ecclesiastic, and wants much of the freshness,
variety, and intelligence of cultivated societies other-
SOCIETY IN INDIA. 365
wise constituted. In societies where capital is con-
centrated for employment in large agricultural, com-
mercial, and manufacturing establishments, those
who possess and employ it, form a large portion of
the middle and higher classes. They require the
application of the higher branches of science to the
efficient employment of their capital in almost every
purpose to which it can be applied ; and they re-
quire, at the same time, to show that they are not
deficient in that conventional learning of the schools
and drawing-rooms, to which the circles they live
and move in, attach importance. In such societies
we are, therefore, always coming in contact with
men whose scientific knowledge is necessarily very
precise, and at the same time very extensive, while
their manners and conversation are of the highest
polish. There is, perhaps, nothing which strikes a
gentleman from India so much on his entering a
society differently constituted, as the superior pre-
cision of men's information upon scientific subjects ;
and more especially upon that of the sciences more
immediately applicable to the arts by which the
physical enjoyments of man are produced, prepared,
and distributed over the world. Almost all men in
India feel, that too much of their time, before they
left England, was devoted to the acquisition of the
dead languages ; and too little to the study of the
elements of science. The time lost can never be
regained — at least they think so, which is much the
same thing. Had they been well-grounded in the
366 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
elements of physics, physiology, and chemistry, be-
fore they left their native land, they would have
gladly devoted their leisure to the improvement of
their knowledge ; but to go back to elements, where
elements can be learnt only from books, is, unhap-
pily, what so few can bring themselves to, that no
man feels ashamed of acknowledging, that he has
never studied them at all, till he returns to England,
or enters a society differently constituted, and finds
that he has lost the support of the great majority
that always surrounded him in India. It will, perhaps,
be said, that the members of the official aristocracy
of all countries have more or less of the same de-
fects, for certain it is, that they everywhere attach
paramount or undue importance to the conventional
learning of the grammar-school and the drawing-
room, and the ignorant and the indolent have perhaps
everywhere the support of a great majority. John-
son has, however, observed — " But the truth is, that
the knowledge of external nature, and the sciences,
which that knowledge requires or includes, are not
the great or the frequent business of the human
mind. Whether we provide for action or conversa-
tion, whether we wish to be useful or pleasing, the
first requisite is the religious and moral knowledge
of right and wrong ; the next is an acquaintance
with the history of mankind, and with those examples
which may be said to embody truth, and prove by
events the reasonableness of opinions. Prudence
and justice are virtues and excellencies of all times,
SOCIETY IN INDIA. 367
and of all places — we are perpetually moralists ; but
we are geometricians only by chance. Our inter-
course with intellectual nature is necessary ; our spe-
culations upon matter are voluntary and at leisure.
Physiological learning is of such rare emergence,
that one may know another half his life, without
being able to estimate his skill in hydrostatics or
astronomy ; but his moral and prudential character
immediately appears. Those authors, therefore, are
to be read at schools, that supply most axioms of
prudence, most principles of moral truth, and most
materials for conversation ; and these purposes are
best served by poets, orators, and historians." — Life
of Milton.
368
CHAPTER XXVI.
PILGRIMS OF INDIA.
There is nothing which strikes an European more
in travelling over the great roads in India than the
vast number of pilgrims of all kinds which he falls
in with, particularly between the end of November,
when all the autumn harvest has been gathered, and
the seed of the spring crops has been in the ground.
They consist, for the most, of persons, male and
female, carrying Ganges water from the point at
Hurdwar, where the sacred stream emerges from the
hills to the different temples in all parts of India,
dedicated to the gods Vishnoo and Sewa. There
the water is thrown upon the stones which represent
the gods, and when it falls from these stones it is
called the " Chunda Mirt," or holy water, and is fre-
quently collected and reserved to be drunk as a re-
medy " for a mind diseased."
This water is carried in small bottles, bearing the
seals of the presiding priest at the holy place whence
PILGRIMS. 369
it is brought. The bottles are contained in covered
baskets, fixed to the ends of a pole, which is car-
ried across the shoulder. The people who carry it
are of three kinds ; those who carry it for themselves
as a votive offering to some shrine — those who are
hired for the purpose by others as salaried servants —
and, thirdly, those who carry it for sale. In the in-
terval between the sowing and reaping of the spring
crops — that is, between November and March, a very
large portion of the Hindoo landholders and culti-
vators of India, devote their leisure to this pious
duty. They take their baskets and poles with them
from home, or purchase them on the road ; and
having poured their libations on the head of the god,
and made him acquainted with their wants and wishes,
return home. From November to March, three-
fourths of the number of these people one meets,
consist of this class. At other seasons more than
three-fourths consist of the other two classes— of
persons hired for the purpose as servants, and those
who carry the water for sale.
One morning the old Jemadar, the marriage of
whose mango grove with the jasmine I have already
described, brought his two sons and a nephew to pay
their respects to me on their return to Jubbulpore
from a pilgrimage to Jugurnath. The sickness of
the youngest, a nice boy of about six years of age,
had caused this pilgrimage. The eldest son was
about twenty years of age, and the nephew about
eighteen.
VOL. II. B B
370 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
After the usual compliments, I addressed the eldest
son — " And so your brother was really very ill when
you set out ?"
" Very ill, sir ; hardly able to stand without as-
sistance."
" What was the matter with him ?"
" It was what we call a drying up, or withering
of the system."
" What were the symptoms?"
" Dysentery."
" Good. And what cured him, as he now seems
quite well?"
" Our mother and father vowed five pair of baskets
of Ganges water to Gujadhur, an incarnation of the
god Sewa, at the temple of Byjoonath, and a visit to
the temple of Jugurnath."
" And having fulfilled these vows, your brother
recovered ?"
" He had quite recovered, sir, before we set out
on our return from Jugurnath."
" And who carried the baskets ?"
" My mother, wife, cousin, myself, and little bro-
ther, all carried one pair each."
" This little boy could not surely carry a pair of
baskets all the way ?"
" No, sir ; we had a pair of small baskets made
especially for him; and when within about three
miles of the temple, he got down from his little
pony, took up his baskets, and carried them to the
god. Up to within three miles of the temple, the
PILGRIMS. 371
baskets were carried by a Brahman servant, whom
we had taken with us to cook our food. We had
with us another Brahman, to whom we had to pay
only a trifle, as his principal wages were made up
of fees from families in the town of Jubbulpore,
who had made similar vows, and gave him so much a
bottle for the water he carried in their several names
to the god?"
" Did you give all your water to the Byjoonath
temple, or carry some with you to Jugurnath ?"
" No water is ever offered to Jugurnath, sir ; he is
an incarnation of Vishnoo."
" And does Vishnoo never drink?"
"He drinks, sir, no doubt; but he gets nothing
but offerings of food and money."
" And what is the distance you went ?"
" From this to Bindachul, or the Ganges, two
hundred and thirty miles ; thence to Byjoonath, a
hundred and fifty miles ; and thence to Jugurnatb
some four or five hundred miles more."
" And your mother and wife walked all the way
with their baskets ?"
" All the way, sir, except when either of them
got sick, when she mounted the pony with my little
brother, till she felt well again."
Here were four members of a respectable family
walking a pilgrimage of between twelve and fourteen
hundred miles, going and coming, and carrying bur-
thens on their shoulders for the recovery of the poor
sick boy; and millions offamilies are every year doing
B B 2
372 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the same from all parts of India. The change of
air, and exercise, cured the boy, and no doubt did
them all a great deal of good ; but no physician in
the world, but a religious one, could have persuaded
them to undertake such a journey for the same
purpose.
The rest of the pilgrims we meet are for the most
part of the two monastic orders of Gosaens, or the
followers of Sewa, and Byragees or followers of
Vishnoo, and Mahomedan Fukeers. A Hindoo of
any caste may become a member of these monastic
orders. They are all disciples of the high priests of
the temples of their respective gods ; and in their
name they wander over all India, visiting the cele-
brated temples which are dedicated to them. A
part of the revenues of these temples is devoted to
subsisting these disciples as they pass ; and every
one of them claims the right of a day's food and
lodging, or more, according to the rules of the temple.
They make collections along the roads ; and when
they return, commonly bring back some surplus as
an offering to their apostle, the high priest who has
adopted them. Almost every high priest has a good
many such disciples, as they are not costly : and
from them returning occasionally, and from the dis-
ciples of others passing, these high priests learn
everything of importance that is going on over India,
and are well acquainted with the state of feeling and
opinion.
What these disciples get from secular people, is
ROMANTIC INCIDENT. 373
given not from feelings of charity or compassion, but
as a religious or propitiatory offering ; for they are
all considered to be armed by their apostle with a
vicarious povv^er of blessing or cursing ; and as being
in themselves men of God, whom it might be dan-
gerous to displease. They never condescend to
feign disease or misery in order to excite feelings of
compassion, but demand what they want with a bold
front, as holy men who have a right to share liberally
in the superfluities which God has given to the rest
of the Hindoo community. They are in general ex-
ceedingly intelligent men of the world, and very
communicative. Among them will be found mem-
bers of all classes of Hindoo society; and of the
most wealthy and respectable families. While I
had charge of the Nursingpoor district, in 1822, a
Byragee or follower of Vishnoo came, and settled
himself down on the border of a village near my
residence. His mild and paternal deportment
pleased all the little community so much, that they
carried him every day more food than he required.
At last, the proprietor of the village, a very respect-
able old gentleman, to whom I was much attached,
went out with all his family to ask a blessing of the
holy man. As they sat down before him, the tears
were seen stealing down over his cheeks as he looked
upon the old man's younger sons and daughters. At
last, the old man's wife burst into tears, ran up, and fell
upon the holy man's neck, exclaiming, " My lost son !
my lost son !" He was indeed her eldest son. He
374 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
had disappeared suddenly twelve years before, be-
come a disciple of the high priest of a distant temple,
and visited almost every celebrated temple in India,
from Kedernath in the eternal snows, to Seet Buldee
Ramesur, opposite the island of Ceylon. He re-
mained with the family for nearly a year, delighting
them and all the country around with his narratives.
At last, he seemed to lose his spirits, his usual rest
and appetite ; and one night he again disappeared.
He had been absent for some years when I last saw
the family ; and I know not whether he ever re-
turned.
The real members of these monastic orders are not
generally bad men ; but there are a great many bad
men of all kinds who put on their disguises, and
under their cloak commit all kinds of atrocities.
The security and convenience which the real pil-
grims enjoy upon our roads, and the entire freedom
from all taxation, both upon these roads, and at the
different temples they visit, tend greatly to attach them
to our rule, and through that attachment, a tone of
good feeling towards it is generally disseminated over
all India. They come from the native states, and be-
come acquainted with the superior advantages the
people under us enjoy, in the greater security of
property, the greater freedom with which it is en-
joyed and displayed ; the greater exemption from
taxation, and the odious right of search which it in-
volves ; the greater facilities for travelling in good
roads and bridges ; the greater respectability and in-
THE SPORTING RAJAH. 375
tegrity of public servants arising from the greater
security in their tenure of office, and more adequate
rate of avowed salaries ; the entire freedom of the
navigation of our great rivers, on which thousands
and tens of thousands of laden vessels now pass from
one end to the other without any one to question
whence they come or whither they go. These are
tangible proofs of good government, which all can
appreciate ; and as the European gentleman, in his
rambles along the great roads, passes the lines of
pilgrims, with which the roads are crowded during
the cold season, he is sure to hear himself hailed
with grateful shouts, as one of those who secured for
them and the people generally all the blessings they
now enjoy.
One day my sporting friend, the Rajah of Myhere,
told me that he had been purchasing some water
from the Ganges at its source, to wash the image of
Vishnoo which stood in one of his temples. I asked
him whether he ever drank the water after the image
had been washed in it. " Yes," said he, " we all occasi-
onally drink the Chunda Mirt." "And do you in
the same manner drink the water in which the god
Sewa has been washed ?" " Never," said the Rajah.
" And why not ?" " Because his wife, Davey, one
day in a domestic quarrel, cursed him, and said, ' The
water which falls from thy head, shall no man hence-
forward drink.' From that day," said the Rajah,
" no man has ever drunk of the water that washes
his image, lest Davey should punish him." " And
376 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
how is it then, Rajah Sahib, that mankind continue
to drink the water of the Ganges which is supposed to
flow from her husband Sewa's topknot ?" " Because,"
replied the Rajah, " this sacred river first flows from
the right foot of the god Vishnoo, and thence passes
over the head of Sewa. The three gods," continued
the Rajah, "govern the world turn and turn about,
twenty years at a time. While Vishnoo reigns, all
goes on well ; rain descends in good season, the
harvests are abundant, and the cattle thrive. When
Brahma reigns, there is little falling off* in these mat-
ters ; but during the twenty years that Sewa reigns,
nothing goes on well — we are all at cross purposes ;
our crops fail, the cattle get the murrain, and man-
kind suffer from epidemic diseases." The Rajah was
a follower of Vishnoo, as may be guessed.
377
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE BEGUM SUMROO.
On the 7th February, I went out to Sirdhana
and visited the church built and endowed by the late
Begum Sombre, whose remains are now deposited
in it. It was designed by an Italian gentleman,
M. Reglioni, and is a fine but not a striking build-
ing. I met the bishop, Julius Caesar, an Italian
from Milan, whom I had known a quarter of a cen-
tury before, a happy and handsome young man — he
is still handsome, though old ; but very miserable,
because the Begum did not leave him so large a
legacy as he expected. In the revenues of her
church he had, she thought, quite enough to live
upon ; and she said, that priests, without wives or
children to care about, ought to be satisfied with
this ; and left him only a few thousand rupees. She
made him the medium of conveying a donation to
the See of Rome of one hundred and fifty thousand
rupees ; and thereby procured for him the bishopric
378 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of Amartanta, in the island of Cyprus ; and got her
grandson, Dyce Sombre, made a chevalier of the
order of Christ, and presented with a splint from the
real cross, as a relict.
The Begum Sombre was by birth a Squadanee, or
lineal descendant from Mahomed, the founder of the
Mussulman faith ; and she was united to Walter
Reinhard when very young, by all the forms con-
sidered necessary by persons of her persuasion when
married to men of another. Reinhard had been
married to another woman of the Mussulman faith,
who still lives at Sirdhana,'^ but she had become
insane, and has ever since remained so. By this first
wife he had a son, who got from the Emperor the
title of Zuffer Yab Khan, at the request of the
Begum, his step-mother ; but he was a man of weak
intellect, and so little thought of, that he was not
recognised even as the nominal chief on the death of
his father.
Walter Reinhard was a native of Saltsburg. He
enlisted as a private soldier in the French service,
and came to India, where he entered the service of
the East India Company, and rose to the rank of
Serjeant. Reinhard got the soubriquet of Sombre
from his comrades while in the French service, from
the sombre cast of his countenance and temper. An
* This first wife died at Sirdhana, during the rainy season of
1838. She must have been above one hundred years of age ;
and a good many of the Europeans that he buried in the Sirdhana
cemetery, had lived above a hundred years.
THE SOMBRE SERJEANT. 379
Armenian, by name Gregory, of a Calcutta family,
the virtual minister of Kasim Alee Khan, under the
title of Gorgeen Khan, took him into his service,
when the war was about to commence between his
master and the English. Kasim Alee was a native
of Cashmere, and not naturally a bad man ; but he
was goaded to madness by the injuries and insults
heaped upon him by the servants of the East India
Company, who were not then paid, as at present, in
adequate salaries, but in profits upon all kinds of
monopolies ; and they would not suffer the recog-
nised sovereign of the country in which they traded,
to grant to his subjects the same exemption from
the transit duties which they themselves enjoyed, as
it would, they argued, tend greatly to diminish their
incomes ! He insisted upon the right to grant his
subjects generally the same exemption that they
claimed for themselves exclusively ; and a war was
the consequence !*
Mr. Ellis, one of these civil servants and chief of
the factory at Patna, whose opinions had more
* Mill observes upon these transactions : " The conduct of the
Company's servants upon this occasion furnishes one of the most
remarkable instances upon record, of the power of self-interest to
extinguish all sense of justice and even of shame. They had
hitherto insisted, contrary to all right and all precedent, that the
government of the country should exempt all their goods from
duty : they now insisted that it should impose duties upon the
goods of all other traders, and accused it as guilty of a breach of
the peace towards the Enghsh nation, because it proposed to remit
them."
380 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
weight with the council in Calcutta than all the
wisdom of such men as Vansittart and Warren
Hastings, because they happened to be more con-
sonant with the personal interests of the majority, pre-
cipitately brought on the war ; and assumed the
direction of all military operations, of which he knew
nothing, and for which he seems to have been totally
unfitted by the violence of his temper. All his en-
terprises failed — the city and factory were captured
by the enemy ; and the European inhabitants taken
prisoners. The Nawab, smarting under the reiterated
wrongs he had received, and which he attributed
mainly to the councils of Mr. Ellis, no sooner found
the chief within his grasp, than he determined to
have him and all who were taken with him, save a
Doctor Fullerton, to whom he owed some personal
obligations, put to death. His own native officers
were shocked at the proposal, and tried to dissuade
him from the purpose ; but he was resolved ; and not
finding among them any willing to carry it into ex-
ecution, he applied to Sumroo, who readily under-
took, and with some of his myrmidons, performed the
horrible duty in 1763. At the suggestion of Gregory
and Sombre, Kasim Alee now attempted to take
the small principality of Nepaul, as a kind of basis
for his operations against the English. He had four
hundred excellent rifles with flint locks and screwed
barrels made at Monghere, on the Ganges, so as to
fit into small boxes. These boxes were sent on
upon the backs of four hundred brave volunteers for
6
THE FORLORN HOPE. 381
this forlorn hope. Gregory had got a passport for
the boxes, as rare merchandise for the palace of
the Prince, at Katmandhoo, in whose presence alone
they were to be opened. On reaching the palace at
night, these volunteers were to open their boxes,
screw up the barrels, destroy all the inmates, and
possess themselves of the palace, where it is supposed
Kasim Alee had already secured many friends.
Twelve thousand soldiers had advanced to the foot
of the hills, near Betteea, to support the attack ; and
the volunteers were in the fort of Muckwanpoor, the
only strong fort between the plain and the capital.
They had been treated with great consideration by
the garrison, and were to set out at daylight the next
morning ; but one of the attendants, who had been
let into the secret, got drunk, and in a quarrel with
one of the garrison, told him that he should see in a
few days who would be master of that garrison.
This led to suspicion ; the boxes were broken open,
the arms discovered, and the whole of the party,
except three or four, were instantly put to death ;
the three or four who escaped, gave intelligence
to the army at Betteea, and the whole retreated
upon Monghere. But for this drunken man, Nepaul
had perhaps been Kasim Alee's.*
* Our troops, under Sir David Ochterlony, took the fort of
Muckwanpoor in 1815, and might in five days have been before
the defenceless capital ; but they were here arrested by the roman-
tic chivalry of the Marquis of Hastings. The country had been
virtually conquered ; the prince, by his base treachery towards
382 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
Kasim Alee Khan was beaten in several actions by
our gallant little band of troops under their able
leader, Colonel Adams; and at last driven to seek
shelter with the Nawab, Vizier of Oude, into whose
service Sumroo afterwards entered. This chief
being in his turn beaten, Sumroo went off, and en-
tered the service of the celebrated chief of Rohil-
cund, Hafiz Rhemut Khan. This he soon quitted
from fear of the English. He raised two battalions
in 1772, which he soon afterwards increased to four ;
us, and outrages upon others, had justly forfeited his throne ;
but the Governor-general, by perhaps a misplaced lenity, left it
to him without any other guarantee for his future good behaviour
than the recollection that he had been soundly beaten. Unfor-
tunately he left him at the same time a sufficient quantity of
fertile land below the hills, to maintain the same army with which
he had fought us, with better knowledge how to employ them, to
keep us out on a future occasion. Between the attempt of Kasim
Alee and our attack upon Nepaul, the Gorkha masters of the
country had, by a long series of successful aggressions upon
their neighbours, rendered themselves in their own opinion and
in that of their neighbours, the best soldiers of India. They
have of course a very natural feeling of hatred against our govern-
ment, which put a stop to the wild career of conquest, and wrested
from their grasp all the property, and all the pretty women from
Katmandhoo to Cashmere. To those beautiful regions they
were what the invading Huns were in former days to Europe,
absolute friends. Had we even exacted a good road into their
country with fortifications at the proper places, it might have
checked the hopes of one day resuming the career of conquest
that now keeps up the army and military spirit, to threaten us
with a renewal of war whenever we are embarrassed on the
plains.
GRILLING A COMMANDANT. 383
and let out always to the highest bidder — first, to
the Jat chiefs of Deeg ; then to the chief of Jey-
poor ; then to the Nujuf Khan, the prime minister ;
and then to the Mahrattas. His battalions were
officered by Europeans, but Europeans of respecta-
bility were unwilling to take service under a man
so precariously situated, however great their neces-
sities; and he was obliged to content himself for
the most part with the very dross of society — men
who could neither read nor write, nor keep them-
selves sober. The consequence was, that the bat-
talions were often in a state of mutiny, committing
every kind of outrage upon the persons of their
officers ; and at all times in a state of insubordination
bordering on mutiny. These battalions seldom obtained
their pay till they put their commandant into con-
finement, and made him dig up his hidden stores if
he had any, or borrow from bankers if he had none.
If the troops felt pressed for time, and their comman-
der was of the necessary character, they put him astride
upon a hot gun without his trowsers. When one
battalion had got its pay out of him in this manner,
he was often handed over to another for the same
purpose. The poor old Begum had been often sub-
jected to the starving stage of this proceeding before
she came under our protection ; but had never, I
believe, been grilled upon a gun ! It was a rule, it
is said, with Sombre, to enter the field of battle in
column at the safest point ; form line facing the
enemy, fire a few rounds in the direction where they
384 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
stood, without regard to the distance or effect ; form
square, and await the course of events. If victory-
declared for the enemy, he sold his unbroken force
to him to great advantage ; if for his friends, he
assisted them in collecting the plunder, and securing
all the advantages of the victory. To this prudent
plan of action, his corps always afterwards steadily
adhered ; and they never took or lost a gun till they
came in contact with our forces at Adjuntee and
Assye.
Sombre died at Agra, on the 4th May, 1778, and
his remains were at first buried in his garden. They
were afterwards removed to consecrated ground, in
the Agra churchyard by his widow, the Begum, who
was baptized, at the age of forty, by a Roman Catholic
priest, under the name of Joanna, on the 7th of May,
1781. On the death of her husband, she was re-
quested to take command of the force by all the
Europeans and natives that composed it, as the only
possible mode of keeping them together, since the son
was known to be altogether unfit. She consented,
and was regularly installed in the charge by the
Emperor Shah Alum. Her chief ofiicer was a Mr.
Pauly, a German, who soon after took an active part
in providing the poor imbecile old Emperor with
a prime minister; and got himself assassinated on
the restoration, a few weeks after, of his rival. The
troops continued in the same state of insubordination ;
and the Begum was anxious for an opportunity to
show that she was determined to be obeyed.
THE BEGUM SUMROO. 385
While she was encamped with the army of the
prime minister'^of the time at Muttra, news was one
day brought to her, that two slave girls had set fire
to her houses at Agra, in order that they might make
off with their paramours, two soldiers of the guard
she had left in charge. These houses had thatched
roofs, and contained all her valuables, and the
widows, wives, and children of her principal officers.
The fire had been put out with much difficulty, and
great loss of property ; and the two slave girls were
soon after discovered in the bazaar at Agra, and
brought out to the Begum's camp. She had the
affair investigated in the usual summary form ; and
their guilt being proved to the satisfaction of all
present, she had them flogged till they were sense-
less, and then thrown into a pit dug in front of her
tent for the purpose, and buried alive. I had heard
this story related in different ways, and I now took
pains to ascertain the truth ; and this short narration
may, T believe, be relied upon. An old Persian
merchant, called the Aga, still resided at Sirdhana,
to whom I knew that one of the slave girls belonged.
I visited him, and he told me, that his father had
been on intimate terms with Sombre, and when he
died his mother went to live with his widow, the
Begum — that his slave girl was one of the two—
that his mother at first protested against her being
taken off to the camp, but became, on inquiry,
satisfied of her guilt — and that the Begum's object was,
to make a strong impression upon the turbulent
VOL. II. c c
386 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
spirit of her troops by a severe example. " In this
object," said the old Aga, " she entirely succeeded ;
and for some years after her orders were implicitly
obeyed ; had she faltered on that occasion, she must
have lost the command — she would have lost that
respect, without which it would have been impossible
for her to retain it a month. I was then a boy ; but
I remember well, that there were, besides my mother
and sisters, many respectable females that would have
rather perished in the flames than come out to ex-
pose themselves to the crowd that assembled to see
the fires ; and had the fires not been put out, a great
many lives must have been lost — besides, there were
many old people and young children who could not have
escaped." The old Aga was going off to take up
his quarters at Delhi when this conversation took
place ; and I am sure, that he told me what he
thought to be true. This narrative corresponded
exactly with that of several other old men from
whom I had heard the story. It should be recol-
lected, that among natives, there is no particular mode
of execution prescribed for those who are condemned
to die : nor, in a camp like this, any court of justice
save that of the commander, in which they could be
tried, and, supposing the guilt to have been esta-
blished, as it is said to have been to the satisfaction
of the Begum and the principal officers, who were all
Europeans and Christians, perhaps the punishment
was not much greater than the crime deserved, and
the occasion demanded. But it is possible, that the
THE BEGUM SUMROO. 387
slave girls may not have set fire to the buildings,
but merely availed themselves of the occasion of the
fire, to run off; indeed, slave girls are under so little
restraint in ludfa, that it would be hardly worth
while for them to burn down a house to get out. I am
satisfied, that the Begum believed them guilty ; and
that the punishment, horrible as it was, was merited.
It certainly had the desired effect. My object has
been to ascertain the truth in this case, and to state
it, and not to eulogise or defend the old Begum.
After Pauly's death, the command of the troops
under the Begum, devolved successively upon Badurs,
Evans, Dudrenee, who, after a short time, all gave it
up in disgust at the beastly habits of the European
subalterns ; and the overbearing insolence to which
they and the want of regular pay gave rise among
the soldiers. At last the command devolved upon
Monsieur Le Vassoult, a French gentleman of birth,
education, gentlemanly deportment, and honourable
feelings. The battalions had been increased to six,
with their due proportion of guns and cavalry ; part
resided at Sirdhana, her capital, and part at Delhi,
in attendance upon the Emperor. A very extra-
ordinary man entered her service about the same
time with Le Vassoult, George Thomas, who, from
a quarter-master on board a ship, raised himself to
a principality in northern India. Thomas on one
occasion raised his mistress in the esteem of the
Emperor and the people by breaking through the
old rule of central squares ; gallantly leading on his
c c 2
388 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
troops, and rescuing his majesty from a perilous situ-
ation in one of his battles with a rebellious subject,
Nujuf Coolee Khan, where the Begum was present in
her palankeen, and reaped all the laurels, being from
that day called " the most beloved daughter of the
Emperor." As his best chance of securing his as-
cendency against such a rival, Le Vassoult proposed
marriage to the Begum, and was accepted. She
was married to Le Vassoult by father Gregorio, a
Carmelite monk, in 1793, before Suleur and Ber-
nier, two French officers of great merit. George
Thomas left her service in consequence, in 1793,
and set up for himself; and was afterwards crushed
by the united armies of the Seikhs and Mahrattas,
commanded by European officers, after he had been
recognised as a general officer by the Governor-
general of India. George Thomas had latterly
twelve small disciplined battalions officered by Euro-
peans. He had good artillery, cast his own guns, and
was the first person that applied iron calibres to brass
cannon. He was unquestionably a man of very ex-
traordinary military genius, and his ferocity and
recklessness as to the means he used, were quite in
keeping with the times. His revenues were derived
from the Seikh states, which he had rendered tribu-
tary ; and he would probably soon have been sove-
reign of them all in the room of Runjeet Sing, had
not the jealousy of Peron and other French officers
in the Mahratta army interposed.
The Begum tried in vain to persuade her husband
FLIGHT OF THE BEGUM. 389
to receive all the European officers of the corps at
his table as gentlemen, urging that not only their
domestic peace, but their safety among such a tur-
bulent set, required that the character of these
officers should be raised if possible, and their feelings
conciliated. Nothing, he declared, should ever in-
duce him to sit at table with men of such habits ;
and they at last determined, that no man should
command them who would not condescend to do so.
Their insolence, and that of the soldiers generally,
became at last unbearable ; and the Begum deter-
mined to go off with her husband, and seek an
asylum in the honourable Company's territory with
the little property she could command, of one hun-
dred thousand rupees in money, and her jewels,
amounting perhaps in value to one hundred thou-
sand more. Le Vassoult did not understand En-
glish ; but with the aid of a grammar and a dictionary
he was able to communicate her wishes to Colonel
M*Gowan, who commanded at that time, 1795, an
advanced post of our army at Anoopshehur, on the
Ganges. He proposed that the colonel should re-
ceive them in his cantonments, and assist them in
their journey thence to Furuckabad, where they
wished in future to reside, free from the cares and
anxieties of such a charge. The colonel had some
scruples, under the impression, that he might be
censured for aiding in the flight of a public officer of
the Emperor. He now addressed the Governor-
general of India, Sir John Shore himself, April,
390 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
1795, who requested Major Palmer, our accredited
agent with Scindeea, who was then encamped near
Delhi, and holding the seals of prime minister of the
empire, to interpose his good offices in favour of the
Begum and her husband. Scindeea demanded
twelve lacks of rupees as the price of the privilege
she solicited to retire ; and the Begum, in her turn,
demanded over and above the privilege of resigning
the command into his hands, the sum of four lacks
of rupees as the price of the arms and accoutrements
which had been provided at her own cost and that of
her late husband. It was at last settled, that she
should resign the command, and set out secretly with
her husband ; and that Scindeea should confer the
command of her troops upon one of his own officers,
who would pay the son of Sombre two thousand
rupees a month for life. Le Vassoult was to be re-
ceived into our territories, treated as a prisoner of
war upon his parole, and permitted to reside with his
wife at the French settlement of Chandernagore.
His last letter to Sir John Shore is dated the 30th
April, 1795. His last letters describing this final
arrangement are addressed to Mr. Even, a French
merchant at Mirzapore, and a Mr. Bernier, both
personal friends of his, and are dated 18th of May,
1795.
The battalions on duty at Delhi got intimation
of this correspondence, made the son of Sombre
declare himself their legitimate chief, and march at
their head to seize the Begum and her husband.
FLIGHT OF THE BEGUM. 391
Le Vassoult heard of their approach, and urged the
Begum to set out with him at midnight for Anoop-
shehur, declaring, that he would rather destroy him-
self than submit to the personal indignities which he
knew would be heaped upon him by the infuriated
ruffians who were coming to seize them. The
Begum consented, declaring, that she would put an
end to her life with her own hand should she be
taken. She got into her palankeen with a dagger
in her hand, and as he had seen her determined reso-
lution and proud spirit before exerted on many try-
ing occasions, he doubted not that she would do
what she declared she would. He mounted his horse
and rode by the side of her palankeen, with a pair of
pistols in his holsters, and a good sword by his side.
They had got on so far as Kabree, about three miles
from Sirdhana, on the road to Meerut, when they
found the battalions from Sirdhana, who had got
intimation of the flight, gaining fast upon the palan-
keen. Le Vassoult asked the Begum, whether she
remained firm in her resolve to die rather than sub-
mit to the indignities that threatened them. " Yes,"
replied she, showing him the dagger firmly grasped
in her right hand. He drew a pistol from his holster
without saying anything, but urged on the bearers.
He could have easily galloped off and saved him-
self, but he would not quit his wife's side. At last,
the soldiers came up close behind them. The female
attendants of the Begum began to scream ; and
looking in, Le Vassoult saw the white cloth that
392 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
covered the Begum's breast stained with blood.
She had stabbed herself, but the dagger had struck
against one of the bones of her chest, and she had
not courage to repeat the blow. Her husband put
his pistol to his temple, and fired. The ball passed
through his head, and he fell dead on the ground.
One of the soldiers who saw him, told me, that he
sprung at least a foot off the saddle into the air as
the shot struck him ! His body was treated with
every kind of insult by the European officers and
their men ; and the Begum was taken back into
Sirdhana, kept under a gun for seven days, deprived
of all kinds of food, save what she got by stealth
from her female servants, and subjected to all man-
ner of insolent language.
At last the officers were advised by George
Thomas, who had instigated them to this violence
out of pique against the Begum, for her preference
of the Frenchman, to set aside their puppet, and re-
seat the Begum in the command, as the only chance
of keeping the territory of Sirdhana. " If," said he,
the Begum should die under the torture of mind and
body to which you are subjecting her, the minister
will very soon resume the lands assigned for your
payment ; and disband a force so disorderly, and so
little likely to be of any use to him or the Emperor."
A counsel of war was held — the Begum was taken
out from under the gun, and reseated upon her
musnud. A paper was drawn up by about thirty
European officers, of whom only one. Monsieur
RESTORATION OF THE BEGUM. 393
Saleur, could sign his own name, swearing, in the
name of God and Jesus Christ,* that they would
henceforward obey her with all their hearts and
souls, and recognise no other person whomsoever as
commander. They all affixed their seals to this
covenant ; but some of them, to show their superior
learning, put their initials, or what they used as such,
for some of these learned Thebans knew only two or
three letters of the alphabet, which they put down,
though they happened not to be their real initials.
An officer on the part of Scindeea, who was to have
commanded these troops, was present at this rein-
stallation of the Begum, and glad to take, as a com-
pensation for his disappointment, the sum of one
hundred and fifty thousand rupees, which the Begum
contrived to borrow for him.
The body of poor Le Vassoult was brought back
to camp, and there lay several days unburied, and
exposed to all kinds of indignities. The supposition
that this was the result of a plan formed by the
Begum to get rid of Le Vassoult is, I believe, un-
founded. The Begum herself gave some colour of
truth to the report, by retaining the name of her
* The paper was written by a Mahomedan, and he would not
write Christ the Son of God — it is written — " In the name of
Godj and his Majesty Christ." The Mahomedans look upon
Christ as the greatest of prophets before Mahomed ; but the most
binding article of their faith is this from the Koran, which they
repeat every day : " I believe in God who was never begot, nor
has ever begotten, nor will ever have an equal," alluding to the
Christians' belief in the Trinity.
394 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
first husband, Sombre, to the last, and never publicly
or formally declaring her marriage with Le Vassoult
after his death. The troops in this mutiny pre-
tended nothing more than a desire to vindicate the
honour of their old commander Sombre, which had,
they said, been compromised by the illicit intercourse
between Le Vassoult and his widow. She had not
dared to declare the marriage to them lest they
should mutiny on that ground, and deprive her of
the command ; and for the same reason she retained
the name of Sombre after her restoration, and re-
mained silent on the subject of her second marriage.
The marriage was known only to a few European
officers. Sir John Shore, Major Palmer, and the other
gentlemen with whom Le Vassoult corresponded.
Some grave old native gentlemen, who were long in
her service, have told me that they believed " there
really was too much of truth in the story which
excited the troops to mutiny 6n that occasion, her
too great intimacy with the gallant young French-
man. God forgive them for saying so of a lady
whose salt they had eaten for so many years." Le
Vassoult made no mention of the marriage to Colonel
M*Gowan ; and from the manner in which he men-
tions it to Sir John Shore, it is clear that he or she,
or both, were anxious to conceal it from the troops
and from Scindeea before their departure. She
stipulated in her will, that her heir, Mr. Dyce, should
take the name of Sombre, as if she wished to
have the little episode of her second marriage for-
gotten.
RESTORATION OF THE BEGUM. 395
After the death of Le Vassoult, the command de-
volved on Monsieur Saleur, a Frenchman, the only
respectable officer who signed the covenant : he had
taken no active part in the mutiny ; on the contrary,
he had done all he could to prevent it ; and he was
at last, with George Thomas, the chief means of
bringing his brother officers back to a sense of their
duty. Another battalion was added to the four in
1797, and another raised in 1798 and in 1802 ; five
of the six marched under Colonel Saleur to the
Deccan with Scindeea. They were in a state of
mutiny the whole way, and utterly useless as auxili-
aries, as Saleur himself declared in many of his letters
written in French, to his mistress the Begum. At
the battle of Assye, four of these battalions were
left in charge of the Mahratta camps. One was pre-
sent in the action, and lost its four guns. Soon after
the return of these battalions, the Begum entered
into an alliance with the British government ; the
force then consisted of these six battalions, a party
of artillery served chiefly , by Europeans, and two
hundred horse. She had a good arsenal well stored,
and a foundry for cannon, both within the walls of
a small fortress, built near her dwelling at Sirdhana.
The whole cost her about four lacks of rupees a year ;
her civil establishments eighty thousand, her pen-
sioners sixty, and her household establishments and
expenses about the same ; total, six lacks of rupees
a year. The revenues of Sirdhana, and the other
lands assigned at different times for the payment of
6
396 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
this force, had been at no time more than suffi-
cient to cover these expenses ; but under the pro-
tection of our government they improved with the
extension of tillage, and the improvements of the
surrounding markets for produce, and she was ena^
bled to give largely to the support of religious and
charitable institutions, and to provide handsomely
for the support of her family and pensioners after
her death.
Sombre's son, Zuffer Yabkhan, had a daughter
who was married to Colonel Dyce, who had for some
time the management of the Begum's affairs ; but he
lost her favour long before her death, by his violent
temper and overbearing manners, and was obliged to
resign the management to his son, who, on the Be-
gum's death, came in for the bulk of her fortune, or
about sixty lacks of rupees. He has two sisters who
were brought up by the Begum, one married to
Captain Troup, an Englishman, and the other to
Mr. Sobroli, an Italian, both very worthy men. Their
wives have been handsomely provided for by the
Begum and by their brother who trebled the fortunes
left to them by the Begum. She built an excellent
church at Sirdhana, and assigned the sum of one
hundred thousand rupees as a fund to provide for its
service and repairs ; fifty thousand rupees as another
for the poor of the place ; and one hundred thousand
as a third, for a college in which Roman Catholic
priests might be educated for the benefit of India
generally. She sent to Rome one hundred and fifty
CHARACTER OF THE BEGUM. 397
thousand rupees, to be employed as a charity fund,
at the discretion of the Pope ; and to the Archbishop
of Canterbury she sent fifty thousand for the same
purpose. She gave to the Bishop of Calcutta one
hundred thousand rupees to provide teachers for the
poor of the Protestant church in Calcutta. She sent
to Calcutta for distribution to the poor, and for the
liberation of deserving debtors, fifty thousand. To
the Catholic missions at Calcutta, Bombay, and
Madras, she gave one hundred thousand ; and to that
of Agra thirty thousand. She built a handsome
chapel for the Roman Catholics at Meerut; and
presented the fund for its support, with a donation
of twelve thousand : and she built a chapel for the
church missionary at Meerut, the Reverend Mr.
Richards, at a cost of ten thousand, to meet the
wants of the native Protestants.
Among all who had opportunities of knowing her,
she bore the character of a kind-hearted, benevolent,
and good woman ; and I have conversed with men
capable of judging, who had known her for more than
fifty years. She had uncommon sagacity, and a mas-
culine resolution ; and the Europeans and natives
who were most intimate with her, have told me, that
though a woman and of small stature, her Rooab
(dignity, or power of commanding personal respect)
was greater than that of almost any person they had
ever seen. From the time she put herself under the
protection of the British government, in 1803, she
by degrees adopted the European modes of social in-
398 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tercourse, appearing in public on an elephant, in a
carriage, and occasionally on horseback with her hat
and veil ; and dining at table with gentlemen. She ,
often entertained governors - general and com-
manders-in-chief, with all their retinues, and sat
with them and their staff at table, and for some years
past kept an open house for the society of Meerut ;
but in no situation did she lose sight of her dignity.
She retained to the last the grateful affections of the
thousands who were supported by her bounty, while
she never ceased to inspire the most profound respect
in the minds of those who every day approached
her, and were on the most unreserved terms of in-
timacy.
Lord William Bentinck was an excellent judge of
character; and the following letter will show how
deeply his visit to that part of the country had im-
pressed him with a sense of her extensive useful-
ness.
TO HER HIGHNESS THE BEGUM SUMROO.
My esteemed Friend, — I cannot leave India with-
out expressing the sincere esteem I entertain for
your highness's character. The benevolence of dis-
position and extensive charity which have endeared
you to thousands, have excited in my mind senti-
ments of the warmest admiration; and I trust that
you may yet be preserved for many years, the solace
of the orphan and widow, and the sure resource of
CHARACTER OF THE BEGUM. 399
your numerous dependants. To-morrow morning I
embark for England ; and my prayers and best wishes
attend you, and all others who, like you, exert them-
selves for the benefit of the people of India.
I remain,
With much consideration,
Your sincere Friend,
(Signed) M. W. Bentinck.
Calcutta, March 17th, 1835.
400 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ON THE SPIRIT OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE IN THE
NATIVE ARMY OF INDIA.
ABOLITION OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT INCREASE OF PAY
WITH LENGTH OF SERVICE PROMOTION BY SENIORITY.
The following observations, on a very important
and interesting subject, were not intended to form a
portion of the present work. They serve to illus-
trate, however, many passages in the foregoing
chapters, touching the character of the natives of
India ; and the Affghan war having occurred since
they were written, I cannot deny myself the gratifi-
cation of presenting them to the public, since the
courage and fidelity, which it was my object to show
the British government had a right to expect from
its native troops, and might always rely upon in the
hour of need, have been so nobly displayed.
I had one morning (November 14th, 1838) a visit
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. 401
from the senior native officer of my regiment, Seikli
Mahoobalee, a very fine old gentleman, who had re-
cently attained the rank of " Sirdar Bahadoor,'^ and
been invested with the new " Order of British India."
He entered the service at the age of fifteen, and had
served fifty-three years with great credit to himself,
and fought in many an honourable field. He had
come over to Jubbulpore as president of a native
general court-martial ; and paid me several visits, in
company with another old officer of my regiment,
who was a member of the same court. The follow-
ing is one of the many conversations I had with him,
taken down as soon as he left me.
" What do you think. Sirdar Bahadoor, of the
order prohibiting corporal punishment in the army ;
has it had a bad or good effect ?"
" It has had a very good effect."
" What good has it produced ?"
" It has reduced the number of courts-martial to
one quarter of what they were before, and thereby
lightened the duties of the officers ; it has made the
good men more careful, and the bad men more
orderly, than they used to be."
" How has it produced this effect ?"
" A bad man formerly went on recklessly from
small offences to great ones, in the hope of impunity ;
he knew that no regimental, cantonment, or brigade
court-martial could sentence him to be dismissed the
service ; and that they would not sentence him to be
flogged, except for great crimes, because it involved,
VOL. II. D D
402 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
at the same time, dismissal from the service. If they
sentenced him to be flogged, he still hoped that the
punishment would be remitted. The general or
officer confirming the sentence, was generally un-
willing to order it to be carried into effect, because
the man must, after being flogged, be turned out of
our service, and the marks of the lash upon his back
would prevent his getting service anywhere else.
Now he knows that these courts can sentence him
to be dismissed from the service — that he is liable
to lose his bread for ordinary transgressions ; and be
sentenced to work on the roads in irons for graver
ones. He is, in consequence, much more under re-
straint than he used to be."
" And how has it tended to make the well-disposed
more careful?"
" They were formerly liable to be led into errors
by the example of the bad men, under the same
hope of impunity ; but they are now more on their
guard. They have all relations among the native
officers, who are continually impressing upon them
the necessity of being on their guard, lest they be
sent back upon their families — their mothers and
fathers, wives and children — as beggars. To be dis-
missed from a service like that of the Company is a
very great punishment ; it subjects a man to the
odium and indignation of all his family. When in
the Company's service his friends know that a soldier
gets his pay regularly, and can afford to send home a
very large portion of it. They expect that he will
INCREASE OF PAY. 403
do SO ; he feels that they will listen to no excuse '
and he contracts habits of sobriety and prudence.
If a man gets into the service of a native chief, his
friends know that his pay is precarious ; and they
continue to maintain his family for many years with-
out receiving a remittance from him, in the hope
that his circumstances may some day improve. He
contracts bad hahits, and is not ashamed to make his
appearance among them, knowing that his excuses
will be received as valid. If one of the Company's
sipahees were not to send home remittances for six
months, some members of the family would be sent
to know the reason why. If he could not explain,
they would appeal to the native officers of the regi-
ment, wlio would expostulate with him ; and if all
failed, his wife and children would be turned out of
his father s house, unless they knew that he was gone
to the wars ; and he would be ashamed ever to show
his face among them again."
" And the gradual increase of pay, with length of
service, has tended to increase the value of the ser-
vice, has it not?"
" It has, very much : there are in our regiment,
out of eight hundred men, more than one hundred
and fifty sipahees who get the increase of two rupees
a month, and the same number that get the increase
of one. This they feel as an immense addition to
the former seven rupees a month. A prudent sipahee
lives upon two, or at the utmost three rupees a month,
in seasons of moderate plenty ; and sends all the rest
D D 2
404 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
to his family. A great number of the sipahees of
our regiment live upon the increase of two rupees,
and send all their former seven to their families.
The dismissal of a man from such a service as this,
distresses not only him, but all his relations in the
higher grades, who know how much of the comfort
and happiness of his family depend upon his remain-
ing and advancing in it ; and they all try to make
tlieir young friends behave as they ought do do."
" Do you think that a great portion of the native
officers of the army have the same feelings and opi-
nions on the subject as you have ?"
" They have all the same ; there is not, I believe,
one in a hundred that does not think as I do upon
the subject. Flogging was an odious thing. A man
was disgraced, not only before his regiment, but be-
fore the crowd that assembled to witness the punish-
ment. Had he been suffered to remain in the regi-
ment, he could never have hoped to rise after having
been flogged, or sentenced to be flogged ; his hopes
were all destroyed, and his spirit broken ; and the
order directing him to be dismissed was good ; but
as I have said, he lost all hope of getting into any
other service, and dared not show his face among his
family at home."
" You know who ordered the abolition of flog-
ging ?"
" Lord Bentinck." ^
* General orders by the Commander-in-Chief, of the 5th of
January, 1797, declare that no sipahee or trooper of our native
FLOGGING. 405
" And you know that it was at his recommenda-
tion the honourable Company gave the increase of
pay, with length of service ?"
army shall be dismissed from the service by the sentence of any
but a general court-martial. General orders by the Commander-
in-chief, Lord Combermere, of the 19th of March, 1827, declare
that his excellency is of opinion that the quiet and orderly habits
of the native soldiers are such, that it can very seldom be neces-
sary to have recourse to the punishment of flogging, which might
be almost entirely abolished, with great advantage to their cha-
racter and feelings ; and directs that no native soldier shall in
future be sentenced to corporal punishment unless for the crime
of stealing, marauding, or gross insurbordination, where the in-
dividuals are deemed unworthy to continue in the ranks of the
army. No such sentence by a regimental, detachment, or
brigade court-martial was to be carried into effect till confirmed
by the general officer commanding the division. When flogged
the soldier was invariably to be discharged from the service.
A circular letter from the Commander-in-chief, Lord Comber-
mere, of the 16th of June, 1827, directs, that sentence to corporal
punishment is not to be restricted to the three crimes of theft,
marauding, and gross insubordination ; but that it is not to be
awarded, except for very serious offence against discipline, or actions
of a disgraceful or infamous nature, which show those who com-
mitted them to be unfit for the service ; that the officer who as-
sembles the court may remit the sentence of corporal punishment,
and the dismissal involved in it ; but cannot carry it into effect
till confirmed by the officer commanding the division, except
when an immediate example is indispensably necessary, as in the
case of plundering and violence on the part of soldiers in the line
of march. In all cases the soldier who has been flogged must be
dismissed.
A circular letter by the Commander-in-chief, Sir E. Barnes,
406 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
" We have heard so ; and we feel towards him as
we felt towards Lord Wellesley, Lord Hastings, and
Lord Lake."
" Do you think the army would serve again now
2nd of November, 1832, dispenses with the duty of submitting
the sentence of regimental, detachment, and brigade courts-mar-
tial for confirmation to the general officer commanding the divi-
sion ; and authorises the officer who assembles the court, to carry
the sentence into effect without reference to higher authority ;
and to mitigate the punishment awarded, or remit it altogether ;
and to order the dismissal of the soldier who has been sentenced
to corporal punishment, though he should remit the flogging,
" for it may happen, that a soldier may be found guilty of an
offence which renders it improper that he should remain any
longer in the service, although the general conduct of the men
has been such, that an example is unnecessary ; or he may have
relations in the regiment of excellent character, upon whom some
part of the disgrace would fall if he were flogged." Still no court-
martial but a general one could sentence a soldier to be simply
dismissed ! To secure his dismissal, they must first sentence him
to be flogged !
On the 24th of February, 1835, the Governor- General of India
in council. Lord William Bentinck, directed " that the practice
of punishing soldiers of the native army by the cat-o' -nine-tails,
or rattan, be discontinued at all the presidencies ; and that hence-
forth it shall be competent to any regimental, detachment, or
brigade court-martial, to sentence a soldier of the native army
to dismissal from the service for any offence for which such soldier
might now be punished by flogging, provided such sentence of
dismissal shall not be carried into effect unless confirmed by the
general or other officer commanding the division.'*
For crimes involving higher penalties, soldiers were, as hereto-
fore, committed for trial before general courts-martial.
ABOLITION OF FLOGGING. 407
with the same spirit as they served under Lor
Lake ?"
" The army would go to any part of the world to
serve such masters — no army had ever masters that
cared for them like ours. We never asked to have
flogging abolished ; nor did we ever ask to have an
increase of pay with length of service; and yet
both have been done for us by the Company Baha-
doorr
The old Sirdar Bahadoor came again to visit me
on the 1st of December, with all the native officers
who had come over from Saugor to attend the court,
seven in number. There were three very smart,
sensible men among them ; one of whom had been as
a volunteer at the capture of Java, and the other at
that of the Isle of France. They all told me that
they considered the abolition of corporal punishment
a great blessing to the native army. " Some bad
men who had already lost their character ; and, con-
sequently, all hope of promotion, might be in less
dread than before ; but they were very few ; and
their regiments would soon get rid of them under
the new law, that gave the power of dismissal to
regimental courts-martial."
" But I find the European officers are almost all
of opinion that the abolition of flogging has been, or
will be, attended with bad consequences ?"
" They, sir, apprehend that there will not be suffi-
cient restraint upon the loose characters of the regi-
ment ; but now that the sipahees have got an in-
408 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
crease of pay in proportion to length of service, there
will be no danger of that. Where can they ever
hope to get such another service, if they forfeit
that of the Company? If the dread of losing
such a service is not sufficient to keep the bad
in order, that of being put to work upon the
roads in irons will. The good can always be
kept in order by lighter punishments, when
they have so much at stake, as the loss of such a
service by frequent offences. Some gentlemen think
that a soldier does not feel disgraced by being
flogged, unless the offence for which he has been
flogged is in itself disgraceful. There is no soldier,
sir, that does not feel disgraced by being tied up to
the halberts, and flogged in the face of all his com-
rades, and the crowd that may choose to come and
look at him : the Sipahees are all of the same re-
spectable families as ourselves ; and they all enter
the service in the hope of rising in time to the same
stations as ourselves, if they conduct themselves well
—-their families look forward with the same hope.
A man who has been tied up and flogged knows the
disgrace that it will bring upon his family, and will
sometimes rather die than return to it ; indeed, as
head of a family, he could not be received at home.*
* The funeral obsequies, which are everywhere offered up to
the manes of parents by the surviving head of the family during
the first fifteen days of the month of Kooar, (September,) were
never considered as acceptable from the hands of a soldier in our
service who had been tied up and flogged^ whatever might have
DISCIPLINE OF THE RATTAN. 409
But men do not feel disgraced in being flogged
with a rattan at drill. While at the drill they
consider themselves, and are considered by us
all, as in the relation of scholars to their school'
masters. Doing away with the rattan at the drill
had a very bad effect ! Young men were formerly,
with the judicious use of the rattan, made fit to join
the regiment at furthest in six months ; but since the
abolition of the rattan it takes twelve months to
make them fit to be seen in the ranks. There was
much virtue in the rattan ; and it should never have
been given up. We have all been flogged with the
rattan at the drill, and never felt ourselves disgraced
by it — we were shagrids^ (scholars,) and the drill-
serjeant, who had the rattan, was our oustad, (school-
master ;) but when we left the drill, and took our
station in the ranks as Sipahees, the case was altered,
and we should have felt disgraced by a flogging,
whatever might have been the nature of the offence
we committed. The drill will never get on so well
as it used to do, unless the rattan be called into use
again ; but we apprehend no evil from the abolition
of corporal punishment afterwards. People are apt
to attribute to this abolition offences that have no-
thing to do with it ; and for which ample punish-
been the nature of the offence for which he was punished ; any-
head of a family so flogged lost, by that punishment, the most
important of his civil rights — that indeed upon which all the
others hinged, for it is by presiding at the funeral ceremonies that
the head of the family secures and maintains his recognition.
410 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
ments are still provided. If a man fires at his officer,
people are apt to say, it is because flogging has been
done away with ; but a man who deliberately fires at
his officer, is prepared to undergo worse punishments
than flogging !" *
" Do you not think that the increase of pay with
length of service to the Sipahees, will have a good
effect in tending to give to regiments more active
and intelligent native officers ? Old Sipahees who
are not so, will now have less cause to complain if
passed over, will they not ?"
" If the Sipahees thought that the increase of pay
was given with this view, they would rather not have
it at all. To pass over men merely because they
happen to have grown old, we consider very cruel
and unjust. They all enter the service young, and
go on doing their duty till they become old, in the
* The worst features of this abolition measure is unquestion-
ably the odious distinction which it leaves in the punishments to
which our European and our native soldiers are liable, since the
British legislature does not consider that it can be safely abolished
in the British army. This odious distinction might be easily re-
moved by an enactment, declaring that European soldiers in India
should be liable to corporal punishment for only two offences ; —
1st, mutiny or gross insubordination ; 2nd, plunder or violence
while the regiment or force to which the prisoner belongs is in
the field, or marching. The same enactment might declare the
Soldiers of our native army liable to the same punishments for the
same offences. Such an enactment would excite no discontent
among our native soldiery; on the contrary, it would be ap-
plauded as just and proper.
SUPERCESSIONS. 411
hope that they shall get promotion when it comes to
their turn. If they are disappointed, and young men,
or greater favourites with their European officers, are
put over their heads, they become heart-broken !
We all feel for them, and are always sorry to see an
old soldier passed over, unless he has been guilty of
any manifest crime, or neglect of duty. He has
always some relations among the native officers, who
know his family, for we all try to get our relations
into the same regiment with ourselves, when they
are eligible. They know what that family will
suffer, when they learn that he has no longer any
hopes of rising in the service, and has become mi-
serable. Supercessions create distress and bad feel-
ings throughout a regiment, even when the best men
are promoted, which cannot always be the case ; for
the greatest favourites are not always the best men.
Many of our old European officers, like yourself, are
absent on staff or civil employments; and the
command of companies often devolves upon
very young subalterns, who know little or no-
thing of the character of their men. They recom-
mend those whom they have found most active and
intelligent, and believe to be the best ; but their
opportunities of learning the characters of the men
have been few. They have seen and observed the
young, active, and forward ; but they often know
nothing of the steady, unobtrusive old soldier, who
has done his duty ably in all situations, without
placing himself prominently forward in any. The
412 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
commanding officers seldom remain long with the
same regiment; and, consequently, seldom know
enough of the men to be able to judge of the justice
of the selections for promotion. Where a man has
been guilty of a crime, or neglected his duty, we feel
no sympathy for him, and are not ashamed to tell
him so, and put him down {kaelkur-hin) when he
complains."
Here the old Soobadar, who had been at the taking
of the Isle of France, mentioned, that when he was
the senior Jemadar of his regiment, and a vacancy
had occurred to bring him in as Soobadar, he was
sent for by his commanding officer, and told, that by
orders from head-quarters he was to be passed over,
on account of his advanced age, and supposed in-
firmity. " I felt," said the old man, " as if I had
been struck by lightning ; and fell down dead ! The
colonel was a good man, and had seen much service.
He had me taken into the open air ; and when I re-
covered, he told me that he would write to the Com-
mander-in-chief, and represent my case. He did so
immediately, and I was promoted ; and I have since
done my duty as Soobadar for ten years."
The Sirdar Bahadoor told me, that only two men
in our regiment had been that year superseded, one
for insolence, and the other for neglect of duty ; and
that officers and sipahees were all happy in conse-
quence— the young, because they felt more secure
of being promoted if they did their duty ; and the
old, because they felt an interest in the welfare of
A RULE OF HUK. 413
their young relations. " In those regiments," said he,
" where supercessions have been more numerous, old
and young are dispirited, and unhappy. They all feel
that the good old rule of right, (huk,) as long as a
man does his duty well, can no longer be relied
upon."
When two companies of my regiment passed
through Jubbulpore, a few days after this conversa-
tion, on their way from Saugor to Seonee, I rode out
a mile or two to meet them. They had not seen me
for sixteen years ; but almost all the native commis-
sioned and non-commissioned officers were personally
known to me. They were all very glad to see me,
and I rode along with them to their place of en-
campment, where I had ready a feast of sweet-
meats. They liked me as a young man, and are,
I believe, proud of me as an old one. Old and
young spoke, with evident delight, of the rigid ad-
herence, on the part of the present commanding
officer. Colonel Presgrave, to the good old rule of
huk (right) in the recent promotions to the vacancies
occasioned by the annual transfer to the invalid esta-
blishment. We might, no doubt, have in every re-
giment a few smarter native officers by disregarding
this rule, than by adhering to it ; but we should, in
the diminution of the good feeling towards the Euro-
pean officers and the government, lose a thousand
times more than we gained. They now go on from
youth to old age, from the drill to the retired pen-
sion, happy and satisfied that there is no service on
414 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
earth so good for them. With admirable moral, but
little or no literary education, the native officers of
our regiments never dream of aspiring to anything
more than is now held out to them, and the mass of
the soldiers are inspired with devotion to the service,
and every feeling with which we could wish to have
them inspired, by the hope of becoming officers in
time, if they discharge their duties faithfully and
zealously. Deprive the mass of this hope, give the
commissions to an ejoclusim class of natives, or to a
favoured few, chosen often, if not commonly, with-
out reference to the feelings or qualifications we
most want in our native officers, and our native army
will soon cease to have the same feelings of devotion
towards the government, and of attachment and re-
spect towards their European officers, that they now
have. The young, ambitious, and aspiring native
officers will soon try to teach the great mass, that
their interest and that of the European officers and
European government are by no means one and the
same, as they have been hitherto led to suppose ;
and it is upon the good feeling of this great mass
that we have to depend for support.. To secure this
good feeling, we can well affi^rd to sacrifice a little
efficiency at the drill. It was unwise in one of our
commanders-in-chief to direct, that no soldier in our
Bengal native regiments should be promoted unless
he could read and write — it was to prohibit the pro-
motion of the best, and direct the promotion of the
worst soldiers in the ranks. In India a military
5
MILITARY LEARNING. 416
officer is rated as a gentleman by his birth, that is,
cdste, and by his deportment in all his relations of
life — not by his knowledge of books.
The Rajpoot, the Brahman, and the proud Pythan
who attains a commission, and deports himself like
an officer, never thinks himself, or is thought by
others, deficient in anything that constitutes the gen-
tleman, because he happens not to be at the same
time a clerk. He has from his childhood been taught
to consider the quill and the sword as two distinct
professions — both useful and honourable when ho-
nourably pursued, — and having chosen the sword, he
thinks he does quite enough in learning how to use
and support it through all grades, and ought not to
be expected to encroach on the profession of the
penman. This is a tone of feeling which it is clearly
the interest of government rather to foster than dis-
courage ; and the order which militated so much
against it, has happily been either rescinded or dis-
regarded.
Three-fourths of the recruits for our Bengal na-
tive infantry are drawn from the Rajpoot peasantry
of the kingdom of Oude, on the left bank of the
Ganges, where their affections have been linked to
the soil for a long series of generations. The good
feelings of the families from which they are drawn,
continue, through the whole period of their service,
to exercise a salutary influence over their conduct as
men and as soldiers. Though they never take their
families with them, they visit them on furlough every
416 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
two or three years, and always return to them when
the surgeon considers a change of air necessary to
their recovery from sickness. Their family circles
are always present to their imaginations ; and the
recollections of their last visit, the hopes of the next,
and the assurance, that their conduct as men and as
soldiers in the interval will be reported to those
circles by their many comrades, who are annually
returning on furlough to the same parts of the coun-
try, tend to produce a general and uniform propriety
of conduct, "that is hardly to be found among the
soldiers of any other army in the world, and which
seems incomprehensible to those who are unac-
quainted with its source, — veneration for parents
cherished through life, and a never impaired love of
home, and of all the dear objects by which it is con-
stituted.
Our Indian native army is perhaps the only entirely
voluntary standing army that has been ever known,
and it is, to all intents and purposes, entirely volun-
tary, and as such must be treated. We can have no
other native army in India, and without such an
army we could not maintain our dominion a day.
Our best officers have always understood this quite
well ; and they have never tried to flog and harass
men out of all that we find good in them for our
purposes. Any regiment in our service might lay
down their arms and disperse to-morrow, without
our having a chance of apprehending one deserter
among them all.
THE GREAT FREDERICK. 417
When Frederick the Great, of Prussia, reviewed
his army of sixty thousand men in Pomerania, pre-
vious to his invasion of Silesia, he asked the old
Prince d'Anhalt, who accompanied him, what he
most admired in the scene before him?
" Sire," replied the prince, " I admire at once the
fine appearance of the men, and the regularity and
perfection of their movements and evolutions.'
" For my part," said Frederick, " this is not what
excites my astonishment, since with the advantage
of money, time, and care, these are easily attained.
It is that you and I, my dear cousin, should be in
the midst of such an army as this in perfect safety !
Here are sixty thousand men who are all irrecon-
cilable enemies to both you and myself; not one among
them that is not a man of more strength, and better
armed than either, yet they all tremble at our pre-
sence, while it would be folly on our part to tremble
at theirs — such is the wonderful effect of order, vigi-
lance, and subordination !"
But a reasonable man might ask. What were the
circumstances which enabled Frederick to keep in a
state of order and subordination an army composed
of soldiers, who were " irreconcilable enemies'^ of their
Prince and of their officers ? He could have told the
Prince d'Anhalt, had he chosen to do so ; for Frede-
rick was a man who thought deeply. The chief cir-
cumstance favourable to his ambition was the utter
imbecility of the old French government, then in its
dotage, and unable to see, that an army of involun-
VOL. II. E E
418 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
tary soldiers was no longer compatible with the state
of the nation. This government had reduced its
soldiers to a condition worse than that of the com-
mon labourers upon the roads, while it deprived them
of all hope of rising, and all feeling of pride in the
profession.* Desertion became easy from the ex-
tension of the French dominion, and from the cir-
cumstance of so many belligerent powers around re-
quiring good soldiers ; and no odium attended de-
sertion, where everything was done to degrade, and
nothing to exalt, the soldier in his own esteem, and
that of society.
Instead of following the course of events, and ren-
dering the condition of the soldier less odious, by in-
creasing his pay and hope of promotion, and dimi-
nishing the labour and disgrace to which he was
liable, and thereby filling her regiments with volun-
tary soldiers when involuntary ones could be no
longer obtained, the government of France reduced
the soldier's pay to one-half the rate of wages which
a common labourer got on the roads ; and put them
under restraints and restrictions, that made them feel
every day, and every hour, that they were slaves !
To prevent desertions by severe examples under this
high pressure system, they had recourse first to slitting
the noses and cutting off the ears of deserters ; and,
lastly, to shooting them as fast as they could catch
* An ordinance, issued in France so late as 1778, required
that a man should produce proof of four quarterings of nobility
before he could get a commission in the army.
10
DESERTION. 419
them.* But all was in vain ; and Frederick of
Prussia alone got fifty thousand of the finest soldiers
in the world from the French regiments, who com-
posed one-third of his army, and enabled him to keep
all the rest in that state of discipline that improved
so much its efficiency, in the same manner as the
deserters from the Roman legions, which took place
under similar circumstances, became the flower of
the army of Mithridates.f
Frederick was in position and disposition a despot.
His territories were small, while his ambition was
* " Est et alia causa, cur attenuatse sint legiones," says Vege-
tius. " Magnus in illis labor est militandi, graviora arma, sera
munera, severior disciplina. Quod Vitantes plerique, in auxiliis
festinaut militise sacramenta percipere, ubi et minor sudor, et ma-
turiora sunt praemia." Lib. ii. cap. 3.
t Montesquieu thought " that the government had better
have stuck to the old practice of slitting noses and cutting off
ears, since the French soldiers, like the Roman dandies under
Pompey, must necessarily have a greater dread of a disfigured
face than of death !" It did not occur to him that France could
retain her soldiers by other and better motives. See Spirit of
Laws, book vi. chap. 12. See also Necker on the Finances,
vol. ii. c. 5 ; vol. iii. c. 34. A day-labourer on the roads got
fifteen sous a day ; and a French soldier only six, at the very
time that the mortality of an army of forty thousand men sent
to the colonies was annually thirteen thousand three hundred and
thirty-three, or about one in three! In our native army the
Sipahee gets about double the wages of an ordinary day-labourer ;
and his duties, when well done, involve just enough of exercise
to keep him in health. The casualties are perhaps about one in
a hundred.
ee2
420 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
boundless. He was unable to pay a large army the
rate of wages necessary to secure the services of
voluntary soldiers ; and he availed himself of the
happy imbecility of the French government to form
an army of involuntary ones. He got French sol-
diers at a cheap rate, because they dared not return
to their native country, whence they were hunted
down and shot like dogs, and these soldiers enabled
him to retain his own subjects in his ranks upon the
same terms. Had the French government retraced
its steps, improved the condition of its soldiers, and
mitigated the punishment for desertion at any time
during the long war, Frederick's army would have
fallen to pieces " like the baseless fabric of a vision."
" Parmi nous," says Montesquieu, " les desertions
sont frequentes parceque les soldats sont la plus vile
partie de chaque nation, et qu'il n'y en a aucune que
ait, ou qui croie avoir un certain avantage sur les
autres. Chez les Romains elles etaient plus rares —
des soldats tires du sein d'un peuple si fier, si orgueil-
leux, si sur de commander aux autres, ne pouvaient
guere penser a s'aviler jusqu'a cesser d'etre Ro-
mains." * But was it the poor soldiers who were to
* Just precisely what the French soldiers were, after the revo_
lution had purged France of all the " perilous stuff that weighed
upon the heart" of its people. Gibbon, in considering the chance
of the civilized nations of Europe ever being again overrun by the
barbarians from the North, as in the time of the Romans, says —
" If a savage conqueror should issue from the deserts of Tartary,
he must repeatedly vanquish the robust peasantry of Russia j the
DESERTION. 421
blame that tliey were vile, and had no advantage over
others, or the government that took them from the
vilest classes, or made their condition when they got
them worse than that of the lowest class in society ?
The Romans deserted under the same circumstances,
and, as I have stated, formed the elite of the army of
Mithridates and the other enemies of Rome ; but they
respected their military oath of allegiance long after
perjury among senators had ceased to excite any
odium, since, as a fashionable or political vice, it
had become common.
Did not our day of retribution come, though in a
milder shape, to teach us a great political and moral
lesson, when so many of our brave sailors deserted
our ships for those of America, in which they fought
against us ? They deserted from our ships of war
because they were there treated like dogs ; or from
our merchant ships, because they were every hour
numerous armies of Germany ; the gallant nobles of France ;
and the intrepid free men of Britain." Never was a more just,
yet more unintended satire upon the state of a country. Russia
was to depend upon her robust peasantry ; Germany upon her
numerous armies ; England upon her intrepid free men ; but
poor France upon her gallant nobles alone ; because, unhappily,
no other part of her vast population was then ever thought of.
When the hour of trial came, those pampered nobles, who had
no feeling in common with the people, were shaken oif " like
dew-drops from the lion's mane ;" and the hitherto spurned
peasantry of France, under the guidance and auspices of men
who understood and appreciated them, astonished the world with
their prowess.
422 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
liable to be seized like felons, and put on board the
former. When " England expected every man to do
his duty" at Trafalgar, had England done its duty to
every man who was that day to fight for her? Is
not the intellectual stock which the sailor acquires in
scenes of peril " upon the high and giddy mast," as
much his property as that which others acquire in
scenes of peace at schools and colleges ? And have
not our senators, morally and religiously, as much
right to authorise their sovereign to seize clergymen,
lawyers, and professors for employment in his service,
upon the wages of ordinary uninstriicted labour, as
they have to authorise him to seize able sailors to be
so employed in her navy ? A feeling more base than
that which authorised the able seaman to be hunted
down upon such conditions, torn from his wife and
children, and put, like Uriah, in front of those battles
upon which our welfare and honour depended, never
disgraced any civilised nation with whose history we
are acquainted.
Sir Matthew Decker, in a passage quoted by Mr.
M'CuUoch, says, " The custom of impressment puts a
freeborn British sailor on the same footing as a
Turkish slave. The grand seignior cannot do a
more absolute act than to order a man to be dragged
away from his family, and against his will run his
head against the mouth of a cannon ; and if such acts
should be frequent in Turkey, upon any one set of
useful men, would it not drive them away to other
countries, and thin their numbers yearly ? And would
IMPRESSMENT. 423
not the remaining few double or triple their wages,
which is the case with our sailors in time of war, to
the great detriment of our commerce." The Ame-
ricans wisely relinquished the barbarous and unwise
ju-actice of their parent land ; and, as M'CuUoch
observes, " While the wages of all other sorts of
labourers and artisans are uniformly higher in the
United States than in England, those of sailors are
generally lower," as the natural consequence of man-
ning their navy by means of voluntary enlistment
alone. At the close of the last war, sixteen thou-
sand British sailors were servinof on board of Ame-
rican ships ; and the wages of our seamen rose from
forty to fifty, to a hundred or one hundred and twenty
shillings a month, as the natural consequence of our
continuing to resort to impressment after the Ame-
ricans had given it up.*
Frederick's army consisted of about one hundred
and fifty thousand men, — fifty thousand of these
were French deserters, and a considerable portion of
the remaining hundred thousand were deserters from
the Austrian army, in which desertion was punished,
in the same manner, with death. The dread of this
punishment, if they quitted his ranks, enabled him
to keep up that state of discipline that improved so
much the efiSciency of his regiments, at the same
time that it made every individual soldier his " irre-
concilable eiiemyr Not relying entirely upon this
* See M^Culloch, Pol. Ecoa. page 235, first edition, Edin-
burgh, 1825.
424 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
dread on the part of deserters to quit his ranks,
under his high pressure system of discipline, and
afraid that the soldiers of his own soil might make
off in spite of all their vigilance, he kept his re-
giments in garrison towns till called on actual ser-
vice ; and that they might not desert on their way
from one garrison to another during relief, he never
had them relieved at all. A trooper was flogged for
falling from his horse, though he had broken a limb
in his fall — it was difficult, he said, to distinguish
an involuntary fault from one that originated in neg-
ligence, and to prevent a man hoping that his negli-
gence would be forgiven, all plunders were punished,
from whatever cause arising. No soldier was suffered
to quit his garrison till led out to fight ; and when a
desertion took place, cannon were fired to announce
it to the surrounding country. Great rewards were
given for apprehending, and severe punishments
inflicted for harbouring the criminal ; and he was soon
hunted down, and brought back. A soldier was,
therefore, always a prisoner and a slave !
Still, all this rigor of Prussian discipline, like that
of our navy, was insufficient to extinguish that am-
bition which is inherent in our nature, to ob-
tain the esteem and applause of the circle in which
we move ; and the soldier discharged his duty in the
hour of danger, in the hope of rendering his life more
happy in the esteem of his officers and comrades.
" Every tolerably good soldier feels," says Adam
Smith. " that he would become the scorn of his com-
HIGH-PRESSURE DISCIPLINE. 425
panions if he should be supposed capable of shrink-
ing from danger, or of hesitating either to expose or
to throw away his life, when the good of the service
required it." So thought the philosopher king of
Prussia, when he let his regiments out of garrison,
to go and face the enemy ! The officers were always
treated with as much lenity in the Prussian as any
other service, because the king knew that the hope
of promotion would always be sufficient to bind them
to their duties ; but the poor soldiers had no hope of
this kind to animate them in their toils and their
dangers.
We took our system of drill from Frederick of
Prussia; and there is still many a martinet who
would carry his high pressure system of discipline
into every other service over which he had any con-
trol, unable to appreciate the difference of circum-
stances under which they may happen to be raised
and maintained.* The Sipahees of the Bengal army,
* Many German princes adopted the discipline of Frederick in
their Httle petty states, without exactly knowing why, or where-
fore. The Prince of Darmstadt conceived a great passion for the
military art ; and when the weather would not permit him to
worry his little army of five thousand men in the open air, he had
them worried for his amusement under sheds. But he was soon
obliged to build a wall round the town in which he drilled his
soldiers, for the sole purpose of preventing their running away —
round this wall he had a regular chain of sentries to fire at the
deserters. Mr. Moore thought the discontent in this little band
was greater than in the Prussian army, inasmuch as the soldiers
saw no object but the prince's amusement. A fight, or the pros-
pect of a 6ght, would have been a feast to them.
426 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the only part of our native army with which I am
much acquainted, are educated as soldiers from their
infancy — they are brought up in that feeling of en-
tire deference for constituted authority which we
require in soldiers, and which they never lose through
life. They are taken from the agricultural classes
of Indian society — almost all the sons of yeomen —
cultivating proprietors of the soil, whose families
have increased beyond their means of subsistence.
One son is sent out after another to seek service in
our regiments as necessity presses at home, from
whatever cause — the increase of taxation, or the too
great increase of numbers in families.* No men
can have a higher sense of the duty they owe to the
state that employs them, or whose salt they eat ; nor
can any men set less value on life when the service
of that state requires that it shall be risked or sacri-
ficed. No persons are brought up with more de-
ference for parents. In no family from which we
draw our recruits is a son through infancy, boyhood,
or youth, heard to utter a disrespectful word to his
parents — such a word from a son to his parents
* Speaking of the question whether recruits drawn from the
country or the towns were hest, Vegetius says—" De qua parte
nunquam credo potuisse dubitari, optiorem armis rusticam plebem,
quae sub divor et in labore nutritur ; soils patiens ; umbrae neg-
ligens ; balnearum nescia ; deUciarum ignora ; simphcisanimi ;
parvo contenta ; duratis ad omnem laborum tolerantiam membris :
cui gestari ferrum, fossam ducere, ornis ferre, consuetude de rure
est." — De re Militari, Ub. i. cap. 3.
BENGAL SIPAHEES. 427
would shock the feelings of the whole community
in which the family resides, and the offending mem-
ber would be visited with their highest indignation.
When the father dies the eldest son takes his place,
and receives the same marks of respect, — the same
entire confidence and deference as the father. If he
be a soldier in a distant land, and can aiford to do so,
he resigns the service, and returns home, to take his
post as the head of the family. If he cannot afford
to resig-n, if the family still want the aid of his re-
gular monthly pay, he remains with his regiment ;
and denies himself many of the personal comforts he
has hitherto enjoyed, that he may increase his con-
tribution to the general stock.
The wives and children of his brothers, who are
absent on service, are confided to his care with the
same confidence as to that of the father. It is a rule
to which I have through life found but few excep-
tions, that those who are most disposed to resist con-
stituted authority, are those most disposed to abuse
such authority when they get it. The members of
these families, disposed, as they always are, to pay
deference to such authority, are scarcely ever found
to abuse it when it devolves upon them ; and the
elder son, when he succeeds to the place of his
father, loses none of the affectionate attachment of
his younger brothers.
They never take their wives or children with them
to their regiments, or to the places where their regi-
428 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
merits are stationed. They leave them with their
fathers or elder brothers, and enjoy their society only
when they return on furlough. Three-fourths of
their incomes are sent home to provide for their com-
fort and subsistence, and to embellish that home in
which they hope to spend the winter of their days.
The knowledge, that any neglect of the duty they
owe their distant families will be immediately visited
by the odium of their native officers and brother
soldiers, and ultimately communicated to the heads
of these families, acts as a salutary check on their
conduct ; and I believe that there is hardly a native
regiment in the Bengal army, in which the twenty
drummers, who are Christians, and have their fami-
lies with the regiment, do not cause more trouble
to the officers than the whole eight hundred
Sipahees.
To secure the fidelity of such men, all that is ne-
cessary is, to make them feel secure of three things — ■
their regular pay, at the handsome rate at which it
has now been fixed ; their retiring pensions upon the
scale hitherto enjoyed ; and promotion by seniority,
like their European officers, unless they shall forfeit
all claims to it by misconduct or neglect of duty.
People talk about a demoralized army, and discon-
tented army ! No army in the world was certainly
ever more moral, or more contented, than our na-
tive army ; or more satisfied that their masters merit
all their devotion and attachment ; and I believe
THE DRILL. 429
none was ever more devoted or attached to them.*
I do not speak of the European officers of the na-
tive army. They very generally believe that they
have had just cause of complaint, and sufficient care
has not always been taken to remove that impres-
sion. In all the junior grades the honourable Com-
pany's officers have advantages over the Queen's in
India. In the higher grades the Queens officers
have advantages over those of the honourable Com-
pany. The reasons it does not behove me here to
consider.
In all armies composed of involuntary soldiers,
that is, of soldiers who are anxious to quit the ranks
and return to peaceful occupations, but cannot do so,
much of the drill to which they are subjected, is
adopted merely with a view to keep them from pon-
dering too much upon the miseries of their present
condition ; and from indulging in those licentious
habits to which a strong sense of these miseries, and
* I believe the native army to be better now than it ever was :
better in its disposition and in its organization. The men have
now a better feehng of assurance than they formerly had, that all
their rights will be secured to them by their European officers :
that all those officers are men of honour, though they have not
all of them the sanie fellow-feeling that their officers had with
them in former days. This is because they have not the same
opportunity of seeing their courage and fidelity tried in the same
scenes of common danger. Go to Affghanistan and to China,
and you will find the feeling between officers and men, as fine as
it ever was in days of yore, whatever it may be at our large and
gay stations, where they see so little of each other.
430 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
the recollection of the enjoyments of peaceful life
which they have sacrificed, are too apt to drive
them. No portion of this is necessary for the soldiers
of our native army, who have no miseries to ponder
over, or superior enjoyments in peaceful life to look
back upon ; and a very small quantity of drill is suf-
ficient to make a regiment of Sipahees go through
its evolutions well, because they have all a pride and
pleasure in their duties, as long as they have a com-
manding officer who understands them. Clarke, in
his Travels, speaking of the three thousand native
infantry from India whom he saw paraded in Egypt
under their gallant leader. Sir David Baird, says,
" Troops in such a state of military perfection, or
better suited for active service, were never seen —
not even on the famous parade of the chosen ten
thousand belonging to Bonaparte's legions, which he
was so vain of displaying before the present war in
the front of the Tuileries at Paris. Not an un-
healthy soldier was to be seen. The English, in-
ured to the climate of India, considered that of
Egypt as temperate in its effects ; and the Sipahees
seemed as fond of the Nile as the Ganges."
It would be much better to devise more innocent
amusements to lighten the miseries of European sol-
diers in India, than to be worrying them every hour,
night and day, with duties, which are in themselves
considered to be of no importance whatever, and
imposed merely with a view to prevent their having
time to ponder on these miseries. But all extra and
THE DRILL. 431
useless duties to a soldier become odious, because
they are always associated in his mind with the ideas
of the odious and degrading punishment inflicted for
the neglect of them. It is lamentable to think how
much of misery is often wantonly inflicted upon the
brave soldiers of our European regiments of India,
on the pretence of a desire to preserve order and
discipline ! *
Sportsmen know that if they train their horses
beyond a certain point, they train off; that is, they
lose the spirit, and with it the condition they require
to support them in the hour of trial. It is the same
with soldiers ; if drilled beyond a certain point, they
drill off; and lose the spirit which they require to
sustain them in active service, and before the enemy.
An over-drilled regiment will seldom go through its
evolutions well, even in ordinary review, before its
own general. If it has all the mechanism, it wants
all the real spirit of military discipline, it becomes
dogged ; and is, in fact, a body without a soul ! The
martinet, who is seldom a man of much intellect, is
satisfied as long as the bodies of his men are drilled
to his liking : his narrow mind comprehends only one
* Their commanding officers say, as Pharaoh said to the
Israelites, " Let there be more work laid upon them, that they
may labour therein ; and not enter into vain discourses." Life
to such men becomes intolerable ; and they either destroy them-
selves, or commit murder, that they may be taken to a distant
court for trial.
432 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
of the principles which influence mankind — -fear;
and upon this he acts with all the pertinacity of a
slave driver. If he does not disgrace himself when
he comes before the enemy, as he commonly does, by
his own incapacity, his men will perhaps try to dis-
grace him, even at the sacrifice of what they hold
dearer than their lives — their reputation. The real
soldier, who is generally a man of mere intellect,
cares more about the feelings than the bodies of his
men : he wants to command their affections as well
as their limbs ; and he inspires them with a feeling
of enthusiasm that renders them insensible to all
danger — such men were Lord Lake, and Generals
Ochterlony, Malcolm, and Adams, and such are many
others, well known in India.
Under the martinet, the soldiers will never do
more than what a due regard for their own reputation
demands from them before the enemy, and will some-
times do less. Under the real soldier, they will
always do more than this : his reputation is dearer to
them even than their own ; and they will do more to
sustain it. The army of the consul, Appius Claudius,
exposed themselves to almost inevitable destruction
before the enemy, to disgrace him in the eyes of his
country, and the few survivors were decimated on
their return : he cared nothing for the spirit of his
men. The army of his colleague, Quintius, on the
contrary, though from the same people, and levied
and led out at the same time, covered him with
MARTINETS. 433
glory, because they loved him.'* We had an instance
of this in the war with Nepaul, in 1815, in which a
king's regiment played the part of the army of Appius.
There were other martinets, king's and company's,
commanding divisions in that war, and they all sig-
nally failed ; not however, except in the above one
instance, from backwardness on the part of their
troops, but from utter incapacity when the hour of
trial came. Those who succeeded were men always
noted for caring something more about the hearts
than the whiskers and buttons of their men. That
the officer who delights in harassing his regiment in
times of peace, will fail with it in times of war, and
scenes of peril, seems to me to be a rule almost as
well established, as that he, who in the junior ranks
of the army delights most to kick against authority,
* See Livy, lib. ii. cap. 59. The infantry under Fabius had
refused to conquer, that their general, whom they hated, might
not triumph ; but the whole army under Claudius, whom they
had more cause to detest, not only refused to conquer, but deter-
mined to be conquered, that he might be involved in their dis-
grace. All the abilities of Lucullus, one of the ablest generals
Rome ever had, were rendered almost useless by his disregard to
the feelings of his soldiers. He could not perceive that the civil
wars, under Marius and Sylla, had rendered a different treatment
of Roman soldiers necessary to success in war. Pompey, his suc-
cessor, a man of inferior military genius, succeeded much better,
because he had the sagacity to see that he now required, not
only the confidence, but the affections of his soldiers. Caesar, to
abilities even greater than those of Lucullus, united the conci-
liatory spirit of Pompey.
VOL. II. F F
434
RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
is always found the most disposed to abuse it when
he gets to the higher. In long intervals of peace,
the only prominent military characters are com-
monly such martinets; and hence the failures so
generally experienced in the beginning of a war
after such an interval. Whitelocks are chosen for
command, and disasters follow, till Wolfes and Wel-
lingtons find Chathams and Wellesleys to climb
up by.
To govern those, whose mental and physical ener-
gies we require for our subsistence or support, by the
fear of the lash alone, is so easy, so simple a mode of
bending them to our will, and making them act
strictly and instantly in conformity to it, that it is
not at all surprising to find so many of those who
have been accustomed to it, and are not themselves
liable to have the lash inflicted upon them, advocating
its free use. In China the Emperor has his
generals flogged; and finds the lash so efficacious
in bending them to his will, that nothing would
persuade him that it could ever be safely dis-
pensed with ! In some parts of Germany, they had
the officers flogged ; and princes and generals found
this so very efficacious in making those act in con-
formity to their will, that they found it difficult to
believe, that any army could be well managed with-
out it ! In other Christian armies, the oflficers are
exempted from the lash, but they use it freely upon
all under them ; and it would be exceedingly difficult
to convince the greater part of these officers, that
USE OF THE LASH. 435
the free use of the lash is not indispensably neces-
sary, nay, that the men do not themselves like to be
flogged, as eels like to be skinned, when they once
get used to it. Ask the slave-holders of the southern
states of America, whether any society can be well
constituted unless the greater part of those upon the
sweat of whose brow the community depends for
their subsistence, are made by law liable to be
bought, sold, and driven to their daily labour with
the lash: they will one and all say, no; and yet
there are doubtless many very excellent and ami-
able persons among those slave-holders. If our
army, as at present constituted, cannot do without
the free use of the lash, let its constitution be
altered ; for no nation with free institutions should
suffer its soldiers to be flogged. " Laudabiliores
tamen duces sunt, quorum exercitus ad modestiam
labor et usus instituit, quam illi quorum milites, ad
obedientiam, suppliciorum formido compellit."*
Though I reprobate that wanton severity of dis-
cipline in which the substance is sacrificed to the
form, in which unavoidable and trivial offences are
punished as deliberate and serious crimes, and the
spirit of the soldier is entirely disregarded, while the
motion of his limbs, cut of his whiskers, and the
buttons of his coat are scanned with microscopic eye,
I must not be thought to advocate idleness. If we
* If corporal punishment be retained at all, it should be limit-
ed to the two offences I have already mentioned. — Vegetius de
re Militari, lib. iii. cap. 4.
F F 2
436 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
find the Sipaliees of a native regiment, as we some-
times do at a healthy and chea^p station, become a
little unruly, like schoolboys, and ask an old native
officer the reason, he will probably answer others as
he has me, by another question — " Ghora ara keoon f
Panee sura keoon f ." " Why does the horse become
vicious ? why does the water become putrid ?" for
want of exercise. Without proper attention to this
exercise, no regiment is ever kept in order ; nor has
any commanding officer ever the respect or the affec-
tions of his men unless they see that he understands
well all the duties which his government intrusts to
him ; and is resolved to have them performed in all
situations, and under all circumstances. There are
always some bad characters in a regiment, to take
advantage of any laxity of discipline, and lead astray
the younger soldiers, whose spirits have been ren-
dered exuberant by good health and good feeding;
and there is hardly any crime to which they will not
try to excite these young men, under an officer care-
less about the discipline of his regiment, or dis-
inclined, from a m\^i2k&Ti. es'prit du corps, or any other
cause, to have those crimes traced home to them, and
punished.*
* Polibius says, " that as the human body is apt to get out of
order under good feeding and Httle exercise, so are states and
armies." B. 11. chap. 6. — Wherever food is cheap, and the air
good, native regiments should be well exercised, without being
worried.
I must here take the Hberty to give an extract from a letter
EDUCATION OF OFFICERS. 437
There can be no question, that a good tone of
feeling between the European officers and their men
from one of the best and most estimable officers now in the
Bengal army : — " As connected with the discipHne of the native
army, I may here remark, that I have for some years past ob-
served, on the part of many otherwise excellent commanding
officers, a great want of attention to the instruction of the young
European officers on first joining their regiments. I have had
ample opportunities of seeing the great value of a regular course
of instruction drill for at least six months. When I joined my
first regiment, which was about forty years ago, I had the good
fortune to be under a commandant and adjutant who, happily
for me and many others, attached great importance to this very
necessary course of instruction. I then acquired a thorough
knowledge of my duties, which led to my being appointed an
adjutant very early in life. When I attained the rank of lieu-
tenant-colonel, I had however opportunities of observing, how very
much this essential duty had been neglected in certain regiments ;
and made it a rule in all that I commanded to keep all young
officers, on first joining, at the instruction drill till thoroughly
grounded in their duties. Since I ceased to command a regi-
ment, I have taken advantage of every opportunity to express to
those commanding officers, with whom I have been in corres-
pondence, my conviction of the great advantages of this system
to the rising generation. In going from one regiment to another,
I found many curious instances of ignorance on the part of young
officers, who had been many years with their corps. It was by
no means an easy task at first to convince them that they really
knew nothing, or at least had a great deal to learn ; but when
they were made sensible of it, they many of them turned out ex-
cellent officers, and now I believe bless the day they were first
put under me."
The advantages of the system here mentioned, cannot be ques-
tioned ; and it is much to be regretted, that it is not strictly en-
forced in every regiment in the service. Young officers may fmd
438
RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
is essential to the well-being of our native army ;
and I think I have found this tone somewhat im-
paired whenever our native regiments are concen-
trated at large stations. In such places the Euro-
pean society is commonly large and gay ; and the
officers of our native regiments become too much
occupied in its pleasures and ceremonies, to attend
to their native officers or sipahees. In Europe there
are separate classes of people, who subsist by catering
for the amusements of the higher circles of society,
in theatres, operas, concerts, balls, &c. &c. ; but in
India this duty devolves entirely upon the young
civil and military officers of the government, and at
large stations it really is a very laborious one, which
often takes up the whole of a young man's time.
The ladies must have amusement ; and the officers
must find it for them, because there are no other
persons to undertake the arduous duty. The con-
sequence is, that they often become entirely alienated
from their men; and betray signs of the greatest im-
patience, while they listen to the necessary reports
of their native officers, as they come on or go off
duty.
It is different when regiments are concentrated
for active service. Nothing tends so much to im-
prove the tone of feeling between the European
it irksome at first ; but they soon become sensible of the advan-
tages, and learn to applaud the commandant who has had the
firmness to consult their permanent interests more than their
present inclinations.
THE DRUNKEN GUESTS. 439
officers and their men, and between European sol-
diers and sipahees, as the concentration of forces on
actual service, where the same hopes animate, and
the same dangers unite them in common bonds of
sympathy and confidence. " Utrique alteris freti,
finitumos arimis aut metu sub imperium cogere,
nomen gloriamque sibi addidere." After the cam-
paigns under Lord Lake, a native regiment passing
Dinapore, where the gallant King's 76th, with whom
they had often fought side by side, was cantoned, in-
vited the soldiers to a grand entertainment provided
for them by the sipahees. They consented to go, on
one condition, — that the sipahees should see them
all back safe before morning. Confiding in their sable
friends, they all got gloriously drunk, but found
themselves lying every man upon his proper cot in
his own barracks in the morning. The sipahees
had carried them all home upon their shoulders.
Another native regiment, passing within a few miles
of a hill on which they had buried one of their
European oflftcers after that war, solicited permission
to go and make their salam to the tomb, and all went
who were off duty.
The system which now keeps the greater part of
our native infantry at small stations of single regi-
ments in times of peace, tends to preserve this good
tone of feeling between oflScers and men ; at the
same time that it promotes the general welfare of
the country, by giving confidence everywhere to the
peaceful and industrious classes.
440 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
I will not close this chapter without mentioning
one thing, which I have no doubt that every Company's
officer in India will concur with me in thinking
desirable, to improve the good feeling of the native
soldiery, — that is, an increase to the pay of the Jema-
dars. They are commissioned officers ; and seldom
attain the rank in less than from twenty-five to
thirty years ;^ and they have to provide themselves
with clothes of the same costly description as those
of the Subadar ; to be as well mounted, and in all
respects to keep up the same respectability of appear-
ance, while their pay is only twenty-four rupees and a
half a month ; that is, ten rupees a month only more
than they had been receiving in the grade of Havil-
dars, which is not sufficient to meet the additional
expenses to which they become liable as commis-
sioned officers. Their means of remittance to their
families are rather diminished than increased by
promotion ; and but few of them can hope ever to
reach the next grade of Subadar. Our government,
which has of late been so liberal to its native civil
officers, will I hope soon take into consideration the
claims of this class, who are universally admitted to
be the worst paid class of native public officers in
India. Ten rupees a month addition to their pay
* There are, I believe, many Jemadars who still wear medals
on their breasts, for their service in the taking of Java and the
Isle of France, more than thirty years ago. Indeed I suspect
that some will be found who accompanied Sir David Baird to
Egypt.
ILL-PAID JEMADARS. 441
would be of great importance; — it would enable
them to impart some of the advantages of their pro-
motion to their families ; and improve the good
feeling of the circles around them towards the govern-
ment they serve.
442
CHAPTER XXIX.
INVALID ESTABLISHMENT.
I HAVE said nothing in the foregoing chapter of
the invalid establishment, which is probably the
greatest of all bonds of union between the govern-
ment and its native army ; and consequently the
greatest element in the " spirit of discipline." Bo-
naparte, who was, perhaps, with all his faults, " the
greatest man that ever floated on the tide of time,"
said at Elba, " There is not even a village that has
not brought forth a general, a colonel, a captain, or
a prefect, who has raised himself by his especial
merit, and illustrated at once his family and his
country." Now we know, that the families and the
village communities, in which our invalid pensioners
reside, never read newspapers, and feel but little
interest in the victories in which these pensioners
may have shared. They feel, that they have no share
in the eclat or glory which attend them ; but they
everywhere admire and respect the government
MILITARY FAMILY. 443
which cherishes its faithful old servants, and enables
them to spend " the winter of their days" in the
bosoms of their families ; and they spurn the man who
has failed in his duty towards that government in the
hour of need. No sipahee taken from the Rajpoot
communities of Oude, or any other part of the coun-
try, can hope to conceal from his family circle, or
village community, any act of cowardice, or of any-
thing else which is considered disgraceful to a sol-
dier, or to escape the odium which it merits in that
circle and community.
In the year 1819, I was encamped near a village,
in marching through Oude, when the landlord, a
very cheerful old man, came up to me with his
youngest son, a lad of eighteen years of age, and re-
quested him to allow him (the son) to show me the
best shooting grounds in the neighbourhood. I took
my " Joe Manton," and went out. The youth showed
me some very good ground; and I found him an
agreeable companion, and an excellent shot with his
matchlock. On our return, we found the old man
waiting for us. He told me that he had four sons,
all, by God's blessing, tall enough for the Company's
service, in which one had attained the rank of havil-
dar, (Serjeant,) and two were still sipahees. Their
wives and children lived with him ; and they sent
home every month two-thirds of their pay, which
enabled him to pay all the rent of the estate, and
appropriate the whole of the annual returns to the
subsistence and comfort of the numerous family. He
8
444 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
was, he said, now growing old, and wished his eldest
son, the Serjeant, to resign the service and come
home to take upon him the management of the
estate. That as soon as he could be prevailed upon
to do so, his old wife would permit my sporting
companion, her youngest son, to enlist, but not
before.
I was on my way to visit Fyzabad, the old metro-
polis of Oude, and on returning a month afterwards,
in the latter end of January, I found that the wheat,
which was all then in ear, had been destroyed by a
severe frost. The old man wept bitterly ; and he
and his old wife yielded to the wishes of their
youngest son, to accompany me and enlist in my
regiment, which was then stationed at Pertaubgur.
We set out, but were overtaken at the third stage
by the poor old man, who told me that his wife had
not eaten or slept since the boy left her, and that
he must go back and wait for the return of his eldest
brother, or she certainly would not live. The lad
obeyed the call of his parents, and I never saw or
heard of the family again.
There is hardly a village in the kingdom of Oude
without families like this, depending upon the good
conduct and liberal pay of sipahees in our infantry
regiments; and revering the name of the government
they serve, or have served. Similar villages are to
be found scattered over the provinces of Behar and
Benares, the districts between the Ganges and
Jumna, and other parts where Rajpoots, and the
PATRIARCH PENSIONER. 445
other classes from whom we draw our recruits, have
been long estabh'shed as proprietors and cultivators
of the soil.
These are the feelings on which the spirit of disci-
pline in our native army chiefly depends, and which
we shall, I hope, continue to cultivate, as we have always
hitherto done, with care ; and a commander must
take a great deal of pains to make his men misera-
ble, before he can render them, like the soldiers of
Frederick, " the irreconcileable enemies of their officers
and their governments
In the year 1817, I was encamped in a grove on
the right bank of the Ganges, below Monghyr, when
the Marquis of Hastings was proceeding up the river
in his fleet, to put himself at the head of the grand
division of the army, then about to take the field
against the Pindaries, and their patrons, the Mahratta
chiefs. Here I found an old native pensioner, above
a hundred years of age. He had fought under Lord
Clive at the battle of Plassey, a. d. 1757, and was
still a very cheerful, talkative old gentlemen, though
he had long lost tlie use of his eyes. One of his
sons, a grey-headed old man, and a Subadar (captain)
in a regiment of native infantry, had been at the
taking of Java, and was now come home on leave, to
visit his father. Other sons had risen to the rank of
commissioned officers, and their families formed the
aristocracy of the neighbourhood. In the evening,
as the fleet approached, the old gentleman, dressed
in his full uniform of former days as a commissioned
446 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
officer, had himself taken out close to the bank of
the river, that he might be once more, during his
life, ivithin sight of a British commander-in-chief,
though he could no longer see one ! There the old
patriarch sat listening with intense delight to the
remarks of the host of his descendants around him,
as the Governor-general's magnificent fleet passed
along, every one fancying that he had caught a
glimpse of the great man, and trying to describe
him to the old gentleman, who in return, told them
(no doubt for the thousandth time) what sort of a
person the great Lord Clive was. His son, the old
Subadar, now and then, with modest deference,
venturing to imagine a resemblance between one or
the other, and his beau ideal of a great man. Lord
Lake. Few things in India have interested me
more than scenes like these.
I have no means of ascertaining the number of
military pensioners in England, or in any other
European nation, and cannot, therefore, state the
proportion which they bear to the actual number of
the forces kept up. The military pensioners in our
Bengal establishment, on the first of May 1841,
were 22,381 ; and the family pensioners, or heirs of
soldiers killed in action 1730: total 24,111, out
of an army of 82,027 men. I question whether the
number of retired soldiers, maintained at the ex-
pense of government, bears so large a proportion to
the number actually serving in any other nation on
earth. Not one of the twenty-four thousand has
PAYMENT OF PENSIONS. 447
been brought on, or retained upon, the list from poli-
tical interest, or court favour : every one receives
his pension for long and faithful services, after he
has been pronounced, by a board of European sur-
geons, as no longer fit for the active duties of his
profession ; or gets it for the death of a father, hus-
band, or son, who has been killed in the service of
government.
All are allovred to live with their families ; and
European officers are stationed at central points in
the different parts of the country, where they are
most numerous, to pay them their stipends every six
months. These officers are at — 1st, Barrackpore ;
2nd, Dinapore ; 3rd, Allahabad ; 4th, Lucknow ; 5th,
Meerut. From these central points they move twice
a year to the several other points within their re-
spective circles of payment, where the pensioners
can most conveniently attend to receive their money
on certain days, so that none of them have to go far,
or to employ any expensive means to get it — ^it is, in
fact, brought home as near as possible to their doors
by a considerate and liberal government.
Every soldier is entitled to a pension when pro-
nounced by a board of surgeons as no longer fit for
the active duties of his profession, after fifteen years'
service ; but to be entitled to the pension of his rank
in the army, he must have served in such rank for
three years. Till he has done so, he is entitled only
to the pension of that immediately below it. A
sipahee gets four rupees a month, that is about one-
448
RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
fourth more than the ordinary wages of common un-
instructed labour throughout the country. But it
will be better to give the rate of the pay of the
native officers and men of our native infantry, and
that of their retired pensions in one table.
Table of the rate of the pay and retired pensions of the
native officers and soldiers of our native infantry.
Rate of
pay per
mensem.
Rate of
pension per
mensem.
A Sipahee, or private soldier, (after 16y ears'
service 8 rupees a month, after 20 years
he gets 9 rupees a month)
A Naek, or corporal ....
A Havildar, or serjeant ....
A Jemadar, (subaltern commissioned officer)
Subadar, (or captain) ....
Subadar major
A Subadar, after 40 years' service
A Sirdar Bahader of the order of British
India, 1st class, two rupees a day extra;
2nd class, one rupee a day extra. This
extra allowance they enjoy after they re-
tire from the service during hfe.
Rs. As.
7 0
12 0
14 0
24 8
67 0
92 0
0 0
Rs. As.
4 0
7 0
7 0
13 0
25 0
0 0
50 0
The circumstances which, in the estimation of the
people, distinguish the British from all other rules in
India, and make it grow more and more upon their
affections, are these: — The security which public
servants enjoy in the tenure of their office ; the pros-
pect they have of advancement by the gradation of
rank ; the regularity and liberal scale of their pay ;
and the provision for old age, when they have dis-
charged the duties entrusted to them ably and faith-
fully. In a native state almost every public officer
ADVANTAGES OF BRITISH RULE. 449
knows, that he has no chance of retaining his office
beyond the reign of the present minister or favour-
ite ; and that no present minister or favourite can
calculate upon retaining his ascendency over the
mind of his chief for more than a few months or
years. Under us, they see secretaries to govern-
ment, members of council, and Governors-general
themselves going out and coming into office without
causing any change in the position of their subor-
dinates, or even the apprehension of anyc hange, as
long as they discharge their duties ably and faithfully.
In a native state the new minister or favourite
brings with him a whole host of expectants, who
must be provided for as soon as he takes the helm ;
and if all the favourites of his predecessor do not
voluntarily vacate their offices for them, he either
turns them out without ceremony, or his favourites
very soon concoct charges against them, which causes
them to be turned out in due form, and perhaps put
into jail till they have " paid the uttermost farthing."
Under us the Governors-general, members of council,
the secretaries of state, the members of the judicial
and revenue boards, all come into office, and take
their seats unattended by a single expectant. No
native officer of the revenue or judicial department,
who is conscious of having done his duty ably and
honestly, feels the slightest uneasiness at the change.
The consequence is a degree of integrity in public
officers never before known in India ; and rarely to
be found in any other country. In the province
VOL. II. G G
450 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
where I now write, which consists of six districts,
there are twenty-two native judicial officers, Moon-
sifs, Sudder Ameens, and principal Sudder Ameens ;
and in the whole province I have never heard a sus-
picion breathed against one of them ; nor do I be-
lieve that the integrity of one of them is at this
time suspected. The only one suspected within the
two and half years that I have been in the province,
was, I grieve to say, a Christian ; and he has been
removed from office, to the great satisfaction of the
people, and is never to be employed again.
The only department in which our native public
servants do not enjoy the same advantages of secu-
rity in the tenure of their office, prospect of rise in
the gradation of rank, liberal scale of pay, and pro- •
vision for old age, is the police; and it is admitted on
all hands, that there they are everywhere exceedingly
corrupt. Not one of them, indeed, ever thinks it pos-
sible that he can be supposed honest; and those who
really are so, are looked upon as a kind of martyrs
or 'penitents^ who are determined, by long suffering,
to atone for past crimes; and who if they could not get
into the police, would probably go long pilgrimages
upon all fours, or with unboiled peas in their shoes.
He who can suppose that men so inadequately
paid, who have no promotion to look forward to, and
feel no security in their tenure of office, and, con-
sequently, no hope of a provision for old age, will be
zealous and honest in the discharge of their duties,
must be very imperfectly acquainted with human
POLICE ABUSES. 451
nature, — with the motives by which men are in-
fluenced all over the world. Indeed no man does in
reality suppose so ; on the contrary, every man
knows, that the same motives actuate public servants
in India as elsewhere. We have acted successfully
upon this knowledge in all other branches of the
public service, and shall, I trust, at no distant period
act upon the same in that of the police ; and then,
and not till then, can it prove to the people what
we must all wish it to be, — a blessing.
The European magistrate of a district has perhaps
a million of people to look after. The native officers
next under him are the Thanadars of the different
subdivisions of the district, containing each many
towns and villages, with a population of perhaps one
hundred thousand people. These officers have no
grade to look forward to ; and get a salary of twenty-
jive rupees a month each !
They cannot possibly do their duties unless they
keep each a couple of horses or ponies, with servants
to attend to them, indeed they are told so by every
magistrate who cares about the peace of his district.
The people, seeing how much we expect from the
Thanadar, and how little w^e give him, submit to his
demands for contribution without a murmur ; and
consider almost any demand venial from a man so
employed and so paid. They are confounded at our
inconsistency ; and say, where they dare to speak
their minds — " We see you giving high salaries, and
high prospects of advancement to men who have
452 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
nothing on earth to do but to collect your revenues
and to decide our disputes about pounds, shillings,
and pence, which we used to decide much better
among ourselves when we had no other court but
that of our elders to appeal to ; while those who are
to protect life and property, to keep peace over the
land, and enable the industrious to work in security,
maintain their families and pay the government
revenue, are left without any prospect whatever of
rising, and almost without any pay at all."
There is really nothing in our rule in India which
strikes the people so much as this glaring incon-
sistency, the evil effects of which are so great and so
manifest. The only way to remedy the evil is, to
give to the police what the other branches of the
public service already enjoy, — a feeling of security
in the tenure of office ; a higher rate of salary ; and
above all a gradation of rank which shall afford a
prospect of rising to those who discharge their duties
ably and honestly. For this purpose all that is re-
quired is, the interposition of an officer between the
Thanadar and the magistrate, in the same manner as
the Sudder Ameen is now interposed between the
Moonsiff and the judge.* On an average there are
* Hobbes, in his Leviathan, says, " And seeing that the end of
punishment is not revenge and discharge of choler ; but correc-
tion either of the offender or of others by his example ; the
severest punishments are to be inflicted for those crimes that are
of most danger to the pubhc ; such as are those which proceed
from mahce to the government estabhshed ; those that spring
POLICE ABUSES. 453
perhaps twelve Thanas, or police subdivisions in each
district ; and one such officer to every four Thanas
would be sufficient for all purposes. The Governor-
general who shall confer this boon on the people of
India, will assuredly be hailed as one of their greatest
benefactors. I should, I believe, speak within
bounds when I say, that the Thanadars throughout
the country, give, at present, more than all the money
which they receive in avowed salaries from govern-
ment, as a share of indirect perquisites to the native
officers of the magistrate's court, who have to send
their reports to them, and communicate their orders,
and prepare the cases of the prisoners they may send
in, for commitment to the sessions courts. Were
they not to do so, few of them would be in office a
month. The intermediate officers here proposed^
from justice ; those that provoke indignation in the multitude ; and
those, which unpunished, seem authorised, as when they are com-
mitted by sons, servants, or favourites of men in power. For in-
dignation carrieth men not only against all actors and authors of
injustice, but against all power that is likely to pi'otect them, as
in the case of Tarquin, when, for the insolent act of his son, he
was driven out of Rome ; and the monarchy itself dissolved."
Part 2nd, Sec. 30.
Almost every Thanadar in our dominions is a little Tarquin in
his way, exciting the indignation of the people against his mas-
ter. When we give him the proper incentives to good, we shall
be able, with better conscience, to punish him severely for bad
conduct. The interposition of the officers I propose between him
and the magistrate, will give him the required incentive to good
conduct, at the same time that it will deprive him of all hope of
concealing his **evil ways," should he continue in them.
454 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
would obviate all this, they would be to the magis-
trate at once the tapis of prince Hosain, and the
telescope of prince Alee, — media that would enable
them to be everywhere, and see everything !
I may here seem to be " travelling beyond the
record ;" but it is not so. In treating on the spirit
of military discipline in our native army, I advocate,
as much as in me lies, the great general principle
upon which rests, I think, not only our power in
India, but what is more, — the justification of that
power. It is our wish, as it is our interest, to give to
the Hindoos and Mahomedans a liberal share in all
the duties of administration, — in all offices, civil and
military ; and to show the people in general, the in-
calculable advantages of a strong and settled govern-
ment, which can secure life, property, and character,
and the free enjoyment of all their blessings, through-
out the land ; and give to those who perform duties
as public servants ably and honestly, a sure prospect
of rising by* gradation, a feeling of security in their
tenure of office, a liberal scale of salary while they
serve, and a respectable provision for old age.
It is by a steady adherence to these principles
that the Indian civil service has been raised to its
present high character for integrity and ability ; and
the native army made what it really is, faithful
and devoted to its rulers, and ready to serve them
in any quarter of the world. I deprecate any inno-
vation upon these principles in the branches of the
public service to which they have been already
JUDICIAL AND REVENUE ESTABLISHMENTS. 455
applied with such eminent success ; and I advocate
their extension to all other branches, as the surest
means of making them what they ought, and what
we must all most fervently wish them to be.
The native officers of our judicial and revenue
establishments, or of our native army, are every
where a bond of union between the governing and
the governed. Discharging everywhere honestly
and ably their duties to their employers, they
tend everywhere to secure to them the respect
and the affections of the people. His high-
ness Mahomed Sueed Khan, the reigning Nawab
of Rampore, still talks with pride of the days when
he was one of our deputy collectors in the adjoining
district of Bhudown ; and of the useful knowledge
he acquired in that office. He has still one brother,
a Sudder Ameen in the district of Mynporee, and
another a deputy collector in the Humeerpore dis-
trict ; and neither would resign his situation under
the honourable Company, to take office in Rampore,
at three times the rate of salary, when invited to do
so on the accession of the eldest brother to the
musnud. What they now enjoy, they owe to their
own industry and integrity ; and they are proud to
serve a government, which supplies them with so
many motives for honest exertion ; and leaves them
nothing to fear, as long as they exert themselves
honestly. To be in a situation, which it is generally
understood that none but honest and able men can
fill, is of itself a source of pride ; and the sons of
456 RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS.
native princes, and men of rank, both Hindoo and
Mahomedan, everywhere prefer taking office in our
judicial and revenue establishments to serving under
native rulers, where everything depends entirely
upon the favour or frown of men in power, and ability,
industry, and integrity can secure nothing.
NOTES.
[In consequence of this work not having had the ad-
vantage of the author's superintendence while passing-
through the press, and of the manuscript having reached
England in insulated portions, some errors and omissions
have unavoidably taken place, a few of which the follow-
ing notes are intended to rectify or supply.]
Volume I. Chapter III. — Page 40.
Charles Harding, of the Bengal civil service, as magis-
trate of Benares, in 1816, prevented the widow of a
Brahman from being burned. Twelve months after her
husband's death, she had been goaded by her family into
the expression of a wish to burn with some relict of her
husband, preserved for the purpose. The pile was raised
for her at Hamnuggur, some two miles above Benares, on
the opposite side of the river Ganges. She was not well
secured upon the pile ; and, as soon as she felt the fire,
she jumped off, and plunged into the river. The people
all ran after her along the bank ; but the current drove
her towards Benares, whence a police boat put off, and
458 NOTES.
took her in. She was almost dead with the fright, and
the water, in which she had been kept afloat by her
clothes ; she was taken to Harding ; but the whole city of
Benares was in an uproar, at the rescue of a Brahman's
widow from the funeral pile, for such it had been con-
sidered, though the man had been a year dead. Thou-
sands surrounded his house, and his court was filled with
the principal men of the city, imploring him to surrender
the woman ; and among the rest was the poor woman's
father, who declared that he could not support his daugh-
ter ; and that she had, tlierefore, better be burned, as her
husband's family would no longer receive her. The up-
roar was quite alarming to a young man, who felt all the
responsibility upon himself in such a city of Benares, with
a population of three hundred thousand people, so prone
to popular insurrections, or risings en masse Very like
them. He long argued the point of the time that had
elapsed, and the unwillingness of the woman, but in vain ;
until at last the thouglit struck him suddenly, and he said,
" That the sacrifice was manifestly unacceptable to their
God— that the sacred river, as such, had rejected her ;
she had, without being able to swim, floated down two
miles upon its bosom, in the face of an immense multi-
tude ; and it was clear that she had been rejected ! Had
she been an acceptable sacrifice, after the fire had touched
her, the river would have received her !" This satisfied
the whole crowd. The father said that, after this un-
answerable argument, he would receive his daughter ; and
the whole crowd dispersed satisfied.
Volume I. Chapter XXJLYh—Page 342.
In the description of the author's encampment at
Gwalior, he fell into a mistake, which he discovered too
NOTES. 459
late for correction in his journal. His tents were not
pitched within tlie Phool Bag, as he supposed, but with-
out ; and seeing nothing of this place, he imagined that
the dirty and naked ground outside was actually the
flower garden. The Phool Bag, however, is a very
pleasing and well-ordered garden, although so completely
secluded from observation by lofty walls, that many other
travellers must have encamped on the same spot without
being aware of its existence.
Volume II. Chapter XXVlU.—Page 406, note.
By Act 23, of 1839, passed by the Legislative Council
of India, on the 23rd of September, it is made competent
for court-martials to sentence soldiers of the native army
in the service of the East India Company, to the punish-
ment of dismissal, and to be imprisoned, with or without
hard labour, for any period not exceeding two years, if
the sentence be pronounced by a general court-martial ;
and not exceeding one year, if by a garrison or line court-
martial ; and not exceeding six months, if by a regimental
or detachment court-martial. Imprisonment for any
period with hard labour, or for a term exceeding six
months without hard labour, to involve dismissal. Act
2, of 1840, provides for such sentences of imprisonment
being carried into execution by the magistrates or other
officers in charge of the gaols.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY G. J. PALMBR, SAVOY STRBBT, STRAND.
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